|
The
1% Solution
September
17, 2003
By Curt Morey
On Meet the Press with Tim Russert this past Sunday, The
vice president, Dick Cheney, emerged from his bunker to defend
the president's policies. When Russert confronted Cheney about
the $87 billion Bush is asking from Congress to support the
efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tim stated that 6 in 10 Americans
oppose that spending.
In addition, Russert went on to say that according to the
Congressional Budget Office, repealing the Bush Tax Cut for
the top 1% of the population would more than pay for the $87
billion appropriations request in just one year!
And not to be steamrolled by Cheney's perpetual spin, Russert
challenged the effectiveness of the tax cuts saying that they
have not produced the job creation effect that Bush had promised,
and in fact 2.7 million jobs have been lost since Bush took
office.
Now I won't go into the spin that Cheney put on those striking
numbers - I'll just give you my take on the matter.
The fact that the Bush tax cuts have yet to generate job
growth as promised is proof that trickle down economics is
a failed and discredited economic theory. It truly is "voodoo
economics." What we have seen is that the rich and the Corporations
who have benefited so heavily from the Republican tax cuts
have not invested in job creation activities, but have instead
participated in one of the oldest of American hobbies: profit
taking!
Nothing wrong with rich folks putting money away or buying
luxury items, instead of going out and using that money as
venture capital and starting new businesses. After all, it
is their money, right? And there is nothing wrong with Corporations
taking the tax breaks and returning it in the form of dividends
to stockholders, instead of expanding their work force and
starting new business development projects. After all, it
is the stockholders money, right?
What is wrong is that Bush and his administration
continue to peddle the tax cuts as a means of creating jobs,
when in fact the tax cuts are simply a vehicle for paying
back the constituencies that elected this elitist administration.
Anyone in business knows that companies will hire new staff
only after they have identified an unmet market demand and
have developed a marketing plan that has strategies for harvesting
the potential new profit. Companies will go after markets
whether or not conservatives are giving them tax cuts and
even if liberals are making them pay their share.
As a side note, Wisconsin Corporations are now paying 50%
less of the State's tax burden than they were 30 years ago,
dropping from 9.2% to 4.5%.
Buhs's tax cuts for the rich come at a time when this president
is spending more money faster than any president in modern
day history. This president has yet to see an appropriations
bill that he would not sign, and has yet to use the power
of the veto to curtail spending.
In addition, he has now declared, in his recent speech to
America, that "...we will spend whatever is necessary to achieve
this essential victory in the war on terror..." That is code
for, "we will spend whatever we want, whenever we want, on
the military, and if you object, we will accuse you of being
unpatriotic."
This liberal contends that the patriotic thing to do would
be to go to the polls in 2004 and elect a candidate that is
not a warmongerer, that is not prone to pandering to the rich
and to Corporations, and who does not hold the American public
hostage to his messianic visions which are causing the deaths
of American lives daily in the Middle East, and deficits at
home that will crush any economic gains they claim to promote.
In 2004, it is our duty to recall this president and start
anew.
|
