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Down
in a Hole
May 13, 2003
By Len Nasman
Those flag wavers who like to delude themselves into believing
that the USA is the best in everything need to wake up and
realize that we have a lot of work to do before insisting
that the USA has the right to claims of being the "best."
Of course we are a great country. However, there is a lot
of room for improvement. Unfortunately, the foolish arrogance
and insane policies being promoted by the current political
powers are leading us downward, not forward.
I have been watching Senators present information about the
administration's proposed budget on CSPAN. Contrary to what
is being published in the news, the proposed tax cuts are
not either $350 billion or $550 billion. That only represents
a particular kind of tax cut. The total tax cut is more like
$1.4 trillion. This is three times more than we are being
told about.
Ten Nobel Prize winning economists all claim that the proposed
tax give away to the rich will do long-term damage to the
economy. Even the administration's own budget analysis shows
increasing record deficits, with no chance for more than 50
years to ever return to a budget surplus.
The USA has, in only two years, gone from a pseudo budget
surplus to deficits that will not be paid for even by our
grandchildren. (The so-called surpluses of the late 1990's
were misleading since they were measured annually, and did
nothing to pay down the total national debt.)
The politicians who used to scream loudly about the need
to balance the budget are, now that they are in power, approving
the largest deficits this country has ever seen. Why? So that
the rich folks will get richer.
Why is it that the middle-class folks are the ones who not
only pay the most taxes, but also send their children to shed
blood for the country, while the rich are given all of the
breaks? Why are large American companies allowed to avoid
their taxes altogether by setting up phony front companies
in places like the Bahamas? Why is it considered unpatriotic
to disagree with a foolish, ignorant, and arrogant George
Junior, but it is fine to avoid doing anything to help the
country, and to stuff more money into the already overfilled
pockets of the greedy fat cats?
While average folks are distracted by talk of continuous
war and with foolish chatter about whether entertainers should
be allowed to have opinions about anything, we are witnessing
the creation of an economic disaster of historic proportions.
Already most States are in financial trouble and taking it
out on the people who need the most help, and on agencies,
such as education, that are necessary for the country to move
forward.
In South Carolina last week, this year's Teacher of the Year
was laid off, along with thousands of other teachers, due
to budget problems. Some states have already announced cutbacks
of up to 25% for education.
The politicians who used to rail against unfunded mandates
have, in recent education legislation, passed one of the largest
unfunded mandates ever on to the States. And this is before
the real deficits hit. Who will put a stop to this insanity
before it is too late?
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