Unfair, Unworkable, Unacceptable: The Bush Economic Plan
From Gerald W. McEntee, President
As President Bush's latest stimulus plan makes its way through Congress, we must seriously look at its potential to sink rather than rescue our economy. Instead of taking us down the road to recovery, this administration prefers to continue pumping money into bank accounts of wealthy friends and corporations. This Bush blueprint is the worst economic-recovery plan yet. And if Congress doesn't pass a better one, all of us will be living with the consequences for decades.
After last year's tax cuts crushed America's working families, Bush is trying to bury us with an unfair, unworkable and unacceptable, 10-year, $674-billion proposal for disaster. The President and his cohorts continue to defend this bad economic plan and continue to deny it will deepen the Bush Recession. It began, they insist, before Bush took office. Yet during the Clinton years, we accrued a $236-billion surplus and the lowest tinemployment rate in modern times!
WHAT BUSH WANTS — is to cut taxes again — $100 billion in this calendar year alone — to stimulate the economy. But you can't stimulate spending and increase employment by removing taxes on stock dividends. You can't stimulate the economy by lowering personal taxes for the very wealthy and accelerating last year's unfair tax cuts.
Under the Bush plan, millionaires will get nearly $90,000 in cuts. The average taxpayer earning between $40,000 and $50,000 annually will only receive $500. The wealthy hoard their rebates. They won't spend them on mortgages, car payments or groceries like working folks do — which would stimulate the economy.
This is not just "big labor" talking. In recent weeks, 10 Nobel Prize laureates, 464 other distinguished economists and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan have all either condemned or strongly cautioned against the Bush plan.
Under George W's plan, corporations gain tax shelters and loopholes, while jobs and services — especially in states — disappear or are privatized. This thinking must be in the genes. Brother Jeb actually preaches the same approach in Florida (see related story).
WHAT WE WANT — is a real economic recovery plan that would provide financial assistance to states, create jobs, improve services and offer relief to suffering families. The following proposals would accomplish these goals and put money right back into the economy:
States share a $85-billion deficit, and rising. Money needs to be directly sent to state, city and local governments immediately, so they can balance budgets, maintain services and handle skyrocketing health care costs.
Crumbling schools and deteriorating transportation systems plague us. By directly investing in those and other key public programs, we will not only shore up our infrastructure but also create needed jobs.
Unemployment was at an eight-year high of 6 percent, as we went to press, bringing the number of jobs lost since George W took office to an outrageous two million. Bush's proposal promises to put only 190,000 people back to work, a mere drop in the bucket.
The middle class and poor deserve a break. Working families have not benefited from last year's tax cuts, and if Bush has his way, they won't again. We can help them and the country by providing one-time tax rebates to those paying payroll taxes. Pumping $65 million into the economy will also create jobs.
JUST SAY 'NO.' We must not be taken in by this man who says he cares about all Americans, yet favors the wealthiest 1 percent. A man who maintains he's a great uniter, yet promotes class warfare.
Sisters and Brothers, not only should we not be tricked by George W Bush, we must stand up to him and his Big Business cronies. It may be David and Goliath all over again — but remember who won that fight.
