A COLUMNIST'S LETTER TO PRES. BUSH
Bush Economics. Following are excerpted quotes from Herald columnist Ana Veciana-Suarez, published in The Houston Chronicle, pg. E5, on Oct. 5, 2005.
Dear President Bush: ... I just read that it's costing the government nearly $1 billion a day to help the victims of the last two hurricanes. The cost of Katrina alone has been estimated at $200 billion. ...but if anyone deserves a hand up, surely it's these unfortunate souls---and I'm not questioning that.
There is, however, the matter of the needless billions spent in Iraq. And while you may consider it admirable to take on so many tasks, I must ask: How are we going to pay for all this?
Cut domestic programs, you've bravely said. ...These cuts aren't nearly enough to offset the astronomical costs of both waging war and rebuilding the Gulf Coast. In any case, all that vague talk about cuts has been rejected by congressional leaders on both sides. ...No one wants to sacrifice.
...Back in September 2000, eight months into your first term, the Treasury Department reported a budget surplus of $237 billion at the end of the fiscal year. Today, we have a $333 billion deficit. That's mind boggling.
...A couple of senior fellows at the Brookings Institution have written that our country's fiscal policy is on "an unsustainable path," and this was back in December 2004, long before Katrina and Rita. More recently, the International Monetary
Fund derided your promise to cut the deficit, calling it "relatively unambitious."
The IMF is worried that our huge budget and trade deficits pose a risk to the global economy. They pose a risk to OUR economy. ...the tax cuts that went into effect in 2001 have cost us $859 billion in lost revenues and 30 percent of that has ended up in the wallets of the nation's top 1 percent of taxpayers.
...In the big leagues of government, I think they call that voodoo economics
If the IMF is concerned about our economy, we should be terrified and up in arms. Our president is creating policies whose effects will remain long after he is out of office. He has taken an economically healthy nation with a comfortable surplus and put it heavily in debt to the tune of an enormous deficit. He has made deals with manufacturers and business conglomerates that has cost thousands of Americans their jobs. He has given tax cuts to the wealthiest of our citizens that has cost the nation billions in lost revenue. To offset that he is cutting benefits to the most vulnerable of our citizens: our veterans, the elderly, the handicapped, single mothers, poor children. His attitude towards the poor is that their station in life is their own fault, a character flaw.
It seems to me that our president is the one who has a character flaw, or at least is vastly ignorant of the life of the average citizen, a common failing among the very rich.
In the entire history of our nation have other nations had to worry about our economy endangering their own? Perhaps during the Great Depression? At no time have other nations referred to us as a "third world country" as some do now. We were once the richest nation in the world. What are we becoming, thanks to this president? What legacy are we leaving for our future generations?
Dear President Bush: ... I just read that it's costing the government nearly $1 billion a day to help the victims of the last two hurricanes. The cost of Katrina alone has been estimated at $200 billion. ...but if anyone deserves a hand up, surely it's these unfortunate souls---and I'm not questioning that.
There is, however, the matter of the needless billions spent in Iraq. And while you may consider it admirable to take on so many tasks, I must ask: How are we going to pay for all this?
Cut domestic programs, you've bravely said. ...These cuts aren't nearly enough to offset the astronomical costs of both waging war and rebuilding the Gulf Coast. In any case, all that vague talk about cuts has been rejected by congressional leaders on both sides. ...No one wants to sacrifice.
...Back in September 2000, eight months into your first term, the Treasury Department reported a budget surplus of $237 billion at the end of the fiscal year. Today, we have a $333 billion deficit. That's mind boggling.
...A couple of senior fellows at the Brookings Institution have written that our country's fiscal policy is on "an unsustainable path," and this was back in December 2004, long before Katrina and Rita. More recently, the International Monetary
Fund derided your promise to cut the deficit, calling it "relatively unambitious."
The IMF is worried that our huge budget and trade deficits pose a risk to the global economy. They pose a risk to OUR economy. ...the tax cuts that went into effect in 2001 have cost us $859 billion in lost revenues and 30 percent of that has ended up in the wallets of the nation's top 1 percent of taxpayers.
...In the big leagues of government, I think they call that voodoo economics
If the IMF is concerned about our economy, we should be terrified and up in arms. Our president is creating policies whose effects will remain long after he is out of office. He has taken an economically healthy nation with a comfortable surplus and put it heavily in debt to the tune of an enormous deficit. He has made deals with manufacturers and business conglomerates that has cost thousands of Americans their jobs. He has given tax cuts to the wealthiest of our citizens that has cost the nation billions in lost revenue. To offset that he is cutting benefits to the most vulnerable of our citizens: our veterans, the elderly, the handicapped, single mothers, poor children. His attitude towards the poor is that their station in life is their own fault, a character flaw.
It seems to me that our president is the one who has a character flaw, or at least is vastly ignorant of the life of the average citizen, a common failing among the very rich.
In the entire history of our nation have other nations had to worry about our economy endangering their own? Perhaps during the Great Depression? At no time have other nations referred to us as a "third world country" as some do now. We were once the richest nation in the world. What are we becoming, thanks to this president? What legacy are we leaving for our future generations?
posted by Anonymous @ 11/19/2005 07:31:00 PM
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