Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Bush's April Fool's joke

Brian Cooney
The Advocate-Messenger,
Danville, KY

The Bush administration has spawned so many disasters lately that it is hard to keep track of them all. The continuing carnage in “liberated” Iraq, deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan, fresh revelations of Bush’s fraudulent use of intelligence to justify war, illegal domestic wire-tapping, unchecked illegal immigration, unprotected ports, the Abramoff scandal, the DeLay resignation, and the spreading stain from the prosecution of Scooter Libby, the vice-president’s former chief of staff, all compete for our attention. A good day for Bush is when he seems to be making less of a mess than the previous day. Unfortunately, that perception is usually wrong.

There’s another looming disaster that hasn’t made headlines lately even though Bush proclaimed it in his radio address of April 1 (a very appropriate date). He called on Congress to make permanent all the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts set to expire in two to four years.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would add $3.3 trillion (including interest) to the national debt over the next decade, in addition to the $3 trillion he has already added since taking office. Moreover, most of the revenue lost from these tax cuts will go to the very rich, further widening the great gap between them and the middle class.

This is the same president who said in his first inaugural address that “Many of you have talked about the need to pay down our national debt. I listened, and I agree. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to act now ... “

Bush says that making the tax cuts permanent will be good for America: “The evidence is overwhelming: The opponents of tax cuts were wrong. Tax relief has helped to create jobs and opportunities for American families, and it’s helped our economy grow.”

Needs a reality check
He needs a reality check. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “The real income of the typical household has fallen five years in a row, despite the fact that the last three of those years - 2002, 2003, and 2004 - have been years of economic expansion.”

According to the Brookings Institute, “Almost 37 million Americans - roughly one person in eight - were poor in 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. That’s 5.4 million more than in 2000.” The number of Americans without health insurance is up by 6,000,000 since 2000.

The CBPP has calculated that, in 2005, the Bush tax cuts will give households with incomes over $1 million an average of $100,000, more than twice the annual income of the typical American household. Bush has proposed substantial cuts in many domestic programs in order to make up for the revenue lost through his tax cuts.

The total amount of the tax cuts for million-dollar households would cost more than the combined cuts Bush wants to make in programs such as “education, veteran’s health benefits, medical research, environmental protection, and various programs for low-income families, such as housing assistance, energy assistance, nutrition assistance, and child care.”

Productivity (output per work hour) grew 15 percent from 2000-2004, despite sinking middle-class income and rising poverty. Where is all the money from this increased production going? To corporate profits, which translate into higher stock dividends and higher stock values for the investor class, and mammoth compensation for high-level executives.

According to USA Today, “Median 2005 pay among chief executives running most of the nation’s 100 largest companies soared 25 percent to $17.9 million.” In other words, the fruits of the Bush economic “recovery” have gone mostly to the already wealthy, the very same people getting the big tax cuts.

Credit slick advertising
How does Bush continue to get away with advocating such policies? Credit slick advertising, including language such as tax “relief” (don’t we all want relief?) and “putting money back into the hands of the American people” (the corporate and financial elite). Credit the timidity and ineffectiveness of the leadership of the Democratic Party.

Another sales trick used by Bush and his Republican troops is what could be called the “sunset fraud.” By legislating tax cuts that were supposed to expire within eight years, the Republican leadership was able to get much larger cuts than if they made the cuts permanent.

The sunset provisions lowered the total projected cost and projected deficits. They knew that when the expiration dates neared, it would be hard for Congress to let the cuts expire. Now Bush is saying that Democrats who refuse to extend tax cuts are trying to “raise taxes.”

Bush and the Republican party are desperately hoping that they can scrape through this year’s elections without too many people realizing what they’re trying to do.