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Dear BuzzFlash,
Observations:
On C-SPAN this morning there was a discussion on welfare. A Texan called informing the audience that none other than Lockheed Martin runs the Texas unemployment system. The woman verified that some states have privatized unemployment. Given that Bush recently met with the president of Poland and loaned Poland $3.8 billion to purchase 48 F-16's from Lockheed, I found this very interesting. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/business/yourmoney/12LOAN.html
Also, MSNBC's Janette Walls reported that George Bush Sr. taped an appearance for the American Music Awards. When it aired, the audience booed and jeered. The home audience didn't hear the reaction of the AMA audience. Walls asked ABC if the boos were bleeped like the Osborne's cussing but ABC would not comment. I don't remember Hillary getting that kind of respect from the media after being disrespected by the firefighters. They couldn't get enough of showing that clip--and we were supposedly in a time of mourning and unification. So why are they protecting the Carlyle Kingpin? It's disgusting.
And one more observation. I was fortunate enough to catch the interview with Clinton on C-SPAN. (Would it have killed C-SPAN to rerun it?) He said that he plans to address Whitewater and other accusations at his library. Way to stick it to them, Bill. I hope his exposing the right-wing hate machine will receive a lot of press when his library opens, hitting the investors of the Lie Lie-brary right where it hurts.
MC
Illinois
Subj: State GOP senator concerned about when songs are sung.
Dear BuzzFlash,
Republican state legislators could care less about the economy....health insurance and education...what really matters to them is when songs are sung at football games. This is from the Herald-Leader...www.kentuckyconnect.com yesterday's paper.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Hey, Tom: Tune in to state's real woes
By Merlene Davis
HERALD-LEADER COLUMNIST
Despite having the governor commute the sentences of 567 prisoners to cut costs, and despite having the state face a $504 million revenue shortfall by next year, state Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, thinks we Kentuckians should be more concerned about when folks sing My Old Kentucky Home at University of Kentucky home football and basketball games.
What was he thinking?
Subj: WAR and VACATION
Hi Buzz,
After GWB finished his nice August vacation he brought out Rove's new product -- WAR in Iraq, it was said there was not a moment to lose, that an attack inspired by Iraq was immanent, that there was no time for inspections.
Inspections are now going on and finding nothing. What of the 'Imminent' attack on our nation by BWB--any evidence of that? Nothing is reported to support that.
Does Saddam have the weapons? Inspectors cannot find any and as long as the inspectors are there and looking it is improbable that they could be brought out from wherever they might be and used.
Answer:
- Keep the inspectors there looking.
- Impeach GWB
- Get inspectors here to look into GWB and his families dealings and Cheney's dealings and the rest of the miserable cartel.
Best
Cole...
Subj: Re: Did ABC Censor Out Booing of Papa Bush on TV?
Dear BuzzFlash,
They did the same thing for Duhbya when he threw out the first pitch at the Milwaukee Brewers baseball game.
You could hear it loudly on the radio "BOOOO". Live radio.
On the TV broadcast there were cheers superimposed on the soundtrack. Just like the TV coverage of the inauguration. Live coverage showed the protesters (we outnumbered supporters) but all the replays only showed scenes with supporters.
No news here!
Scott R. Hotchkiss
Subj: Neo-Crazies
Ms. Vanden Heuvel has coined a new moniker for the White House group ... "neo-crazies," and conservative Chris Matthews seems to agree. Excerpt below from Hardball 1/14/03
"KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL (Editor, The Nation): Chris, if I might add, I think we're seeing now two buildups in this - two buildups. We have a build up, a military buildup in the region and we have a buildup at home and in the international community. At home, if you put together the ambivalent Americans and those who are opposed to a war, you have a silent or silenced majority, and I think that it's unclear, this White House may keep the war on the front burner for political reasons. But it's not clear to me at this moment that they are going to go ahead with the war because I think all the polls show there was support for multi-lateralism. That's why they went to the U.N. and we have a White House whose foreign policy has been hijacked by a small group of neo-conservatives or if I might add, neo-crazies.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, let me ask you this. I agree with you by the way to a large extent on that last point....."
BuzzFlash Fan
Subj: No Wonder the Right thinks they are infallible
Hi Buzzers,
Remember back hundreds of years ago when England's sovereigns held their positions with an iron fist due to "the divine right of kings"? Seems like Dubya believes that God came down and tapped his shoulder –or at least that's impression I'm receiving from all his strange evangelical speech and action.
What's next on King Dubya's agenda? Feudal lords? Crusades? Indentured servitude? Oh, wait, we all ready have those.
--Erin R. Lawrence
Subj: Problem link-scrubbed MSNBC poll
Buzz-the link on the MSNBC poll is no longer valid and has apparently been scrubbed.
The poll that showed overwhelmingly that people DON'T think Bush is doing a good job is no longer available. All prior "Question of the Day" poll results are available EXCEPT this one.
your link was http://www.msnbc.com/news/778726.asp?0cm=c21&cp1=1
A BuzzFlash Reader
DOES ANYONE OUT THERE THINK GW BUSH COULD HAVE GONE TO A SCHOOL LIKE YALE WITH A C AVERAGE IF HIS DAD WORKED AT THE SHELL STATION CHANGING TIRES?
SHORTY
MEMPHIS TN
Subj: Web of board members ties together Corporate America
Dear BuzzFlash,
So after reading this I have a much better understanding of how stories get, or don't get reported in our newspapers and on TV. These people who sit on multiple boards must have some great connections. Surely it would never occur to them to take advantage of any of the information shared at a "board" meeting. Okay class, today's word is plutocracy. You don't have to look it up in a dictionary, you can learn all about it by reading the article below.
James Neb Conner
Dear Buzz,
The commentaries from the mother whose son survived a horrific injury only to now be forced into the military, and Patricia, whose friend is being sent to Kuwait, just break my heart. I feel nothing but helpless rage at the bastards in Washington who are ruining millions of lives. As a mother myself, I can imagine the pain these women so eloquently expressed. Any person with a heart can imagine it.
I don't know how many readers you have, Buzz (can you tell us?). But each person reading the Mailbag today: PLEASE....please get out this Saturday and protest this madness, this insane desire to murder and plunder Iraq and her people, the utter disregard for our own young people as they lay their lives down for OIL AND GREED FOR POWER. TELL YOUR FAMILIES, YOUR FRIENDS, YOUR CO-WORKERS. So what if they laugh at you? Just walk away, and go to another person, and another, and another, until you've opened the minds and hearts of your immediate community. AND THEN PROTEST.
We are the ONLY ONES WHO CAN STOP THIS. Patricia is right. It's just a handful of maniacs who have hijacked the entire planet for their power game. We MUST stop this. There is NOTHING worth the chaos that will be unleashed in the world once Herr Bush orders the first bombs. There is NOTHING that will stop Saddam Hussein from attacking our troops with biological weapons. And NO REASON for the North Koreans to back down from their nuclear plans once they see how the US plans to trample the countries of the Middle East. Because Iraq is only the beginning.
If you think the economy is bad now, just wait. If you think the environment is destroyed, just wait. If you think lawlessness and crime rule because people are desperate and in despair, just wait. Our world now will look like Paradise Lost once the monsters of war are released.
Please everyone....it is NOT too late. We are NOT powerless. Goodness and Peace ultimately triumph, because this world is God's, not George Bush's. Whatever God you believe in, or if you don't believe in God, you must believe that the Power of our intention to save our children and our planet is stronger than Their greed and madness.
PROTEST THE WAR, TODAY, TOMORROW, AND ESPECIALLY SATURDAY. The world is joining us against the war, and the world is watching.
elaine in Petaluma
Subj: Little Caesar
Dear Buzz,
I like the nickname Little Caesar for Dim Perverse or whatever the name of the week. Now someone needs to create a song about Little Caesar to the tune of Wake Up Little Suzy (his favorite song).
Keep up the good work - reporting each new horror, tracking the old ones, and shining a ray of hope when you can.
Jean in PA
Subj: Sadly, the Anti-Coulter says "Ciao"
Hello BuzzFlash, just thought I would let you know that a really entertaining website, is going to, in the words of the creator Carl Skutsch, "hang up its hat and put down its html pencil."
For some terrific Anti-Coulter banter, check out the archives, especially the mailbag. Carl's responses to e-mails, especially the one's with the most hyperbole, are hysterical.
Check it out when you have some time. It's a scream. Considering her rantings, it's no wonder that Carl has grown weary of slapping Coulter around. This is the kind of work that Limbaugh and Hannity could only dream of doing. He also has links to other websites for those of us who can't get enough of bashing the hateful Coulter.
Thanks for the lively banter, Carl!
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: Pug says ONLY students with the BEST scores should be allowed to go to college!
Dear Buzz,
On Wednesday night's Donahue, the discussion was the issue of affirmative action. Donahue had two right wingers on, one Black and one (big mouth) White against Jesse Jackson on the Left. (2 Pugs against 1 democrat, of course! Not to mention the mostly White male audience that clapped heartedly every time a Pug spoke!)
Just before I had all that I could stomach and started to turn off the television set, Jesse Jackson mentioned something about GW Bush receiving "Legacy" points allowing him to get into Yale, even after he was disqualified by a Texas law school because of poor grades and contended further that this was no different than a poor minority applicant receiving "points" for the color of their skin.
The White, probably rich, Pug immediately burst out with an absurd assertion that "discriminating" for purposes of "Legacy" was not against the Constitution, and therefore perfectly acceptable, but "discriminating" for race was UN-CONSTITUTIONAL and therefore illegal!
So let me get this straight. It is okay to add 20 points to GW Bush's shitty scores because his Daddy was rich and went to Yale and because his Granddaddy was rich and went to Yale, simply because there is nothing in the Constitution that says you can't. On the other hand, if your skin is Black, Brown or Red, the Universities CANNOT add points to an applicant's scores, good or bad, because it violates the Constitution!
The Pug, who is also a hypocrite by nature, also said that only the students with the BEST scores should be allowed to go to college.
This just begs the question that I know will never get an answer! Do those "BEST scores" include extra points for "Legacies"???!!
Just asking.
Nancy Lynn Nagy (TN)
PS. Since Trent Lott resigned in disgrace, I've never heard so many Pugs quoting Martin Luther King Jr. on National television in my life!
Dear BuzzFlash,
Right! Here's a guy with scarcely enough mental octane to cultivate an original idea, a guy with his frat-boy code of ethics that gave him no pause about being AWOL while in the service of his state's Air National Guard. This very same guy who has reservations about the fairness of Affirmative Action that is designed to rectify egregious discrimination, had no reservations about the affirmative action that promoted some dumb rich-boy schmuck from Texas, barely qualified for a community college or technical training center, into the hallowed halls of Yale and Harvard. So let's all sit back and listen to Bush —the guy who has raised mediocrity to an art form, hypocrisy to a philosophy. Indeed let's all hear Bush pontificate, and while we listen to the sound of silence, meditate on this: In his random deconstruction of the language, which end is he really blowing it out of?
David M.
Loucas, MD
West Palm
Beach, FL
i think a lot of people have conveniently forgotten that george w. bush was turned down by the university of tx. because his grades were so poor. he later was accepted by yale and then harvard business school because of who his dad is. that is the rich and powerful affirmative action!
randi kerry
madison
wi
Dear BuzzFlash,
Its Official! Bush and Cronies have looted the treasury and surplus like Tartar hordes despoiling the Eurasian plains. US now faces $200 BILLION deficits.....
....as this sordid gang shamelessly calls for spending cuts while 1. stamping "TOP SECRET" on all military, intel, and other government functions (which are often little more than huge slush-funds for CIA-r-w types) and #2. shamelessly calling for huge tax-cuts for the hyper-wealthy.
"Its NOT a party, its encouraging business investment!" the party hacks declare....
the sad part about all this, is in just two short years, America has gone from "a bridge to the future" to a bleak, desolate, land of the lied-to, fearful, and manipulated....
( Just imagine... the wealthiest, most informed generation in all human history, totally undone because America's trillion-dollar defense/intel establishment let 20 hijackers (many of them known to those " intel" services) hijack 4 airliners on one day...
<< Asked whether cutting taxes at the same time a war was being fought was tantamount to a party, he said: "We're not throwing a party. We're encouraging business investment." >>
LJBK
January 16, 2003
Bush Aide Sees Deficit in 2003 of $200 Billion
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM and EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 —The White House said today that the federal deficit was likely to exceed $200 billion this fiscal year and probably hit $300 billion next year.
The ballooning deficits —the largest ever in dollar terms but smaller relative to the economy than deficits in the 1980's and early 1990's —could put President Bush's tax plan in peril.
Subj: Pulling Out All The Stops
CLINTON: Bill Clinton's past is blazing as the headline on Drudge. Bill and Monica took first place over the stolen and then found Bubonic Plague vials. I almost choked laughing. The falling stones of Bush's approval rating must have them in a twit so the right-wing shills want to remind everyone that Bill Clinton is stained. How funny, it should get even funnier as Bush and his "American Only" polls continue to roll down the mountain.
In Maureen Dowd's column today she quoted a guy who said "he would trust Bush with his daughter, but not his job." I wonder if he has seen Bush's daughters and their behavior. I wouldn't trust Bush with my daughters and absolutely not with my sons.
ASHCROFT: Denver had one talk show host who said "don't tell me he's here, tell me when he leaves." And one of our news channels had a Constitutional Lawyer on who said it was absolutely constitutionally incorrect for Ashcroft to be speaking on such a subject. That news station really ripped the Denver visit and it's purpose.
Sally McDonald
Subj: Weekly Blather
Dear BuzzFlash,
Dapper Don Rumsfeld, the administration's nattily attired BS shoveler in chief trotted out today to make his weekly blathering, I mean briefing. Good Ol Don made a number of laughable statements, which included the interesting observation that "the [UN]inspectors aren't there to find all these hidden weapons of mass destruction...that's not their job. " Really? Then what the hell are they doing there? Catching some sun? Listening to the Basra symphony? Studying ancient Mesopotamian culture? As I recall, the specific mandate of these inspectors is to check to see whether Iraq has complied with the UN resolutions requiring disarmament, and the inspectors seem to be doing precisely that by attempting to see if Iraq has any hidden weapons systems banned by the UN resolutions.
Nevertheless, according to Rummy that doesn't matter. Expressing the administration's "Catch22" view of the world he stated that "even if there is nothing found by the inspectors, that is alarming since that means that Iraq is hiding something." I see. I haven't heard that kind of tortuous illogic uttered since the Republican Attorney General of California, Earl Warren, testified before Congress that the utter absence of sabotage by Japanese Americans was a strong ominous portent that sabotage would be forthcoming immediately Damned if they do and damned if they don't. If the weapons inspectors find something, then Iraq is in breach. If they don't that means that Iraq is hiding something. Kafka, Orwell and Heller must be having a riotously good laugh right now, wherever they are.
Of course Rummy wasn't content to stop with that bit of nonsensical circular reasoning. He also whined about Congress not giving enough money for the war effort. Excuse the hell out of me but Congress just passed a defense budget of 360 billion dollars. Moreover, just today, Junior's people announced that, gollee, surprise, surprise!, the budget deficits are going to be a whole hell of a lot bigger than expected.
See: LINK TO STORY
(Gee, whatta shock eh? Recycled, failed Reaganomics leading to a mammoth ballooning of the deficit. Who woulda thunk it huh?)
So, since there has been a massive hole blown in the Federal Budget by Junior's affirmative action tax cutting for the rich, I suggest that Rumsfeld start tightening his belt and look in-house for his money. For example: "According to a recent General Accounting Office report, military branches could only prove 8 percent of the money allocated for parts actually went to purchase parts. The Pentagon could not account for $1.8 billion that was earmarked for parts." (See: http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/01/jul01/ed072701j.html).
I recommend that Rumsfeld start his quest for more money by looking for the lost 1.8 billion. However, Congress should absolutely not let him take it out of the mouths of children, the elderly and the unemployed who are suffering mightily under this administration's regressive policies.
Dan DeLisio
Subj: The "Golden Rule" in the Senate
Dear BuzzFlash,
I can't believe it!! For anyone who did not catch CSPAN2 yesterday (Jan14th), the Democrats in the Senate are holding up the organizing resolution (allocation of funds, space etc) because the Republicans AREN"T PLAYING FAIR! The Dems said that when they were the majority, they agreed to split the stuff 51:49...because it was fair, divided Senate and all. Now that they are in the minority (49:51) the Repubs don't want to do that (surprise, surprise) and the Dems are citing the GOLDEN RULE and want the Repubs to play fair like they did! When will they ever learn?!?!
On a more serious note, it seems almost too obvious to me. Watch out for Bush's little temper tantrums. He is getting very testy because he is not getting what he wants. What I fear is that the attack on Iraq will go ahead setting off Al Quaida, who may just be waiting in the background for that shoe to fall. Still in the back of my mind I hope that this is really just a bluff (I hope) and the pressure from the international community will keep a lid on things. I hope.
A million thanks for all you do to keep us informed,
A Very Loyal Fan
Subj: A Recent Contribution from the Poet Laureate of Great Britain
Dear BuzzFlash,
You may already have already seen this, but if not, it's short and to the point:
Causa Belli
They read good books, and quote, but never learn
a language other than the scream of rocket-burn
Our straighter talk is drowned but ironclad;
elections, money, empire, oil and Dad.-- Andrew Motion
Here are
a couple of links about his poem:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,871251,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2641477.stm#quote
Keep up the great work.
Mark Gaskill
Subj: Sen. Joe Biden
Dear BuzzFlash,
I just watched Hardball last nite who's guest was Sen from Delaware, Joe Biden. WHY ISN'T THIS GUY RUNNING?
Maureen
Westfall
Charlotte,
NC
Subj: Open E Mail To Frank Rich
Feel free to print the following:
AN OPEN E-MAIL TO FRANK RICH, NY TIMES
Dear Mr. Rich,
Every other Saturday I would open the New York Times (which I've been reading since the age of 11 -- I'm now 63) to the op-ed page and begin devouring your column.
Half way though one one of your rhetorically elegant screeds (as one trained in this dark art by the Jesuits, I've always admired its more proficient practitioners) I would lift my eyes from the page to pause and wonder how the the right wing would let you get away with consistently skewering them like a pig at a Texas barbecue.
Well I didn't have to wait long for an answer. I've never trusted Howell Raines. When he controlled the editorial page of the Times, his attacks on Bill Clinton were much too much in lockstep with the gang of weirdoes who shared the same task at the Wall Street Journal. When the pseudo intellectual cadre of the right began to attack Mr. Raines as he expanded his power base on 43rd Street, I smelled a 'feint' odor of disingenuousness.
And now the true very red state colors of Mr. Raines have survived the Republican whitewash machine (and tumble dryer as well.) He has taken you up the mountain and shown you the power of becoming the cultural czar of the New York Times -- thus the cultural king of New York which logically makes you the cultural caliph of American. Your only cost is giving up your politically charged op-ed column, which seems short money in the world of Faustian bargains.
I really can't blame you for succumbing to this temptation. You've wandered in the liberal desert and what has it gotten you: a few right ons from decrepit lefties and perhaps a tax audit or two.
But as a long, long time fan, let me say that for years you were our ghost light and now the the theatre of political ideas will go dark indeed.
Now I'm guessing that Paul Krugman will be offered some fabulous academic position he can't refuse. His brilliant anti-Bushoid analytical attacks must also be silenced. The recently announced subtle shift in the op-ed editorial structure signals the production of columns by the faux liberal stepford wives conservatives who been laboring in the lesser areas of the media.
I've long suspected Mr. Raines is the Manchurian Candidate of the right and now that the fatal card has been played, it looks like the rest of his hand is all trumps.
Goodbye my dear newsprint companion. I just ask that when you occupy your lofty perch as the power behind the thrown to the wolves (beware messrs. Erlanger, Brantley and the player-to-be-named) you look behind you once in a while to view the chaos and repression that will rule in the real world you turned your back on.
I have a feeling that in the artistic future the right has planned for us, Moose Murders will start looking like a masterpiece.
Rudy Franchi
Boston
Subj: Here's why we KNOW the White House is lying about Iraq.....
Dear BuzzFlash,
If, as the White House has said:
A. Iraq's WMD are an imminent threat that MUST be eliminated as quickly as possible; and
B. the UN should be allowed to produce proof those WMD exist before war can be openly declared,
why hasn't the administration IMMEDIATELY given the UN inspectors ALL of its intelligence regarding on Iraq?
The answer's painfully obvious:
The White House is bluffing, hoping inspectors will find something that can be used to justify an overt invasion.
Please pass this on to everyone you know.
Eric Smith
Mark-
You should post this quote from Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address
"For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals."
Bob
Subj: Affirmative Action
Dear Buzz:
The UM Law School case is consistently portrayed by the media in a very racist manner.
The subtext is that white students were denied admission because UNQUALIFIED black students were admitted. This portrayal is false and feeds the racist beliefs that blacks are of inferior intelligence to whites. The black students that are admitted to elite schools like UM Law School are imminently qualified and will become the black leaders of the future. Elite schools compete for the best students but they also compete for those who can provide connections for the school and their students. A school would not be considered elite for very long if it failed to admit those students that are poised to be future leaders. The students filing the lawsuit apparently do not recognize this factor. These students and many racists are in denial that they were not elite enough to be admitted. They deny that opportunities for blacks and whites are not the same. They deny that the K12 system is administered in a way that benefits the wealthy suburban school districts at the expense of poor rural and inner city schools. After years of unequal opportunity, these white students then demand that the playing field be level and admission to elite schools be determined on the basis of objective test scores and academic performance and that subjective issues not be considered.
It is pathetic that Mr. Bush should have the gall to speak in this case. After all, Mr. Bush was an unremarkable, underachieving student at Yale who was admitted to Harvard Business School even though many applicants had much better records than Mr. Bush. What qualified Mr. Bush above his fellow applicants was his family connections in high government office. Mr. Bush was a beneficiary of the same system and the same set of rules that are being used for qualified black students. No one objects to being denied admission to an elite school while much less qualified LEGACIES are admitted, least of all Mr. Bush.
A nasty little secret of elite colleges is that underachieving students can be admitted if they overachieve in a sport such as lacrosse, etc. When was the last time someone complained that they were denied admission to UM because they admitted a less qualified football player instead? Where are the lawsuits over athletic admissions? If this were about fairness, then Mr. Bush would admit that he should not have been admitted to Harvard and that his admission unfairly discriminated against more qualified students. Instead Mr. Bush speaks in the racist GOP code of quotas, reverse discrimination and unfairness to white folks. This is more GOP pandering to its racist base in the South and it should be exposed for what it is. This is the GOP pretending that the playing field is level when it is slanted toward the privileged elites like Mr. Bush. This is about privilege and who should be afforded privilege. This is not about fairness.
bakho
Subj: Hypocrisy Abounds
So Dubya is denouncing preferential admission programs at Michigan. How does he think he got into Yale--wasn't that some kind of preferential treatment plan? Why is it not OK for minorities but it IS OK for legacies? If he believes candidates should be admitted solely on merit, then he should include legacies in his argument as well. After all, he surely took the place of some deserving student who got better test scores and grades than he did. Why was that acceptable and this is not?
BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: Why has no Dem pointed out the irony?
Dear BuzzFlash,
GW's simplistic view of the Michigan court case is that people are getting into college based on the color of their skin. He is against that. He got into college based on his daddy's influence and money. He is in favor of that. Sheesh.
deb
Subj: Confusing Rumsfeld Quote
Dear BuzzFlash,
Is it just me or does this quote from Rumsfeld just sound like they're making things up as they go along? Have they finally realized that they've put forward so many "reasons" to start dropping bombs that Americans are now thoroughly confused?
On other subjects, Rumsfeld said:
_It should not be surprising that many Americans are still asking why the United States might attack Iraq.
"The president has not made a case for going to war because he has not made such a decision," he said. "So one ought not to be surprised that, in fact, there are people who look at the situation and may come to a conclusion that that case hasn't been made at this point. And I think that's a fair comment."
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: American Dream
Dear Buzz,
Just read the moving personal testament of one of your readers on the death of the American Dream.
It also echoes the death of everything else that we who were born when Franklin Roosevelt was president grew up believing about our country.
To sum up, when did the New Deal give way to the Raw Deal?
Jo Ann McNamara
Subj: Red Ink Republicans
Great work, BuzzFlash!
I guess I'm confused about today's news of the monstrous projected deficits under the Bush tax plan. I thought the whole argument during the 80's was that reducing taxes on the wealthy would result in *increased* revenue for the federal government, due the massive economic stimulus. In fact, some conservatives argue that during the Reagan years, the government took in more money in spite of the tax cuts (a claim that is only true under very narrow and misleading assumptions), yet the Reagan deficits were the fault of the free spending Democratic Congress.
So now that Bush is cutting taxes on the rich like Reagan did, and we have a Republican-controlled Congress, those deficits should just drop right down to zero in a hurry, right? So what happened?
If I were as talented as Paul Krugman, I could make an absolutely killer column out of this argument. But he probably already has it in the can. It's like shooting fish in a barrel.
Thanks much,
Doug Ingram
PS. Red Ink Republicans is very catchy. Keep pushing it!
