Republicans Dig The Hole - Democrats Look For Way To Climb Out

What is it with this country? The Republicans have been making it very clear with their last 3 presidents. They will completely abandon the party platform to spend us into HUGE deficits, engage in preemptive strikes to start wars, trounce our individual liberties for more centralized power, and hand hundreds of billions of dollars to corporations and the wealthy. Yet, Americans will COMPLETELY IGNORE these facts and elect the Republicans back into power after DEMOCRATS balance the budget, reform welfare, improve our infrastructure, and keep us at peace.

It's remarkable! No matter how many times the Republicans break their promises of "small government, balanced budgets, and a strong economy," the citizens of this country keep getting suckered and voting them back into power. It's as if the country has "Attention Deficit Disorder" and cannot remember what happened during the last president's term. This country really is easily distracted from the truth and from the issues of national importance. The population becomes wrapped up with the sex life of a president and ignores the gains made in the economy, schools, and healthcare.

So, here we are again. This time, we are left with at least $1,500,000,000,000 in debt. There is at least $800,000,000,000 of debt from the war in Iraq, and another $700,000,000,000 more to bailout the banks and mortgage companies. THANK YOU, REPUBLICANS! Can we dig out from under it? Yes, We Can! Will the country remember how difficult it was and demand that Republicans return to their platform before they elect them back into power? If history is an indicator, I doubt it. The electorate will find some trivial reason for ignoring the big picture and put the deficit spending, liberty raping Republicans right back in the White House to do it again.

ADDENDUM: From today's headlines...
(CBS/AP) Long-term jobless claims reached 3.84 million, a 25-year high, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Prior to this report, government data showed that retail sales in October sank to it's worst showing since 1969. Worker productivity slowed down by 3.6 percent, the Labor Department reported.

Paulson, Bernanke, & Bush Making Economy Tank

The proposed "economic stimulus package" from the Bush administration is "too little, too late" and actually exacerbates the underlying difficulties that Americans are currently experiencing. What is being proposed are tax cuts that will increase consumer spending, raise prices even further, and be of no assistance in the debt to asset ratio that is already hurting so many consumers caught in a severe mortgage crisis. It is a fact that higher prices in oil have already worked their way through the economy causing the consumer to pay higher prices for practically everything they need to survive. Meanwhile, higher wages are non-existent and healthcare costs also continue to climb.

What does the Bush "plan" actually provide to the average American taxpayer? Some analysts have suggested that most people will see a $250 tax break. Think about this. Two hundred fifty extra dollars in your tax return is not enough to make a mortgage payment. Even if the $250 is put back into the economy in the form of consumer spending, it will not stop the recession (which I believe began last quarter). When everything from groceries to automobile parts cost 30% more than they did 2 years ago, but wages have remained flat, there is no way to stop a recession from occurring. It certainly cannot be stopped by increasing inflation and sinking the dollar to new all-time lows against currencies of other industrialized nations. I don't know about you, but this is the first time during my lifetime that the Canadian dollar has traded at a premium to the U.S. dollar. Bush can talk all he wants about lowering taxes, but THERE IS NO GREATER FINANCIAL TAX THAT YOU CAN PLACE ON THE WORKING CLASS THAN INFLATION. And inflation happens when the dollar's value deteriorates - it takes more dollars to buy the same products.

So, what are going to about this? Are going to allow Bush & Co. to crap on us one more time, or are we going to scream bloody murder until they start addressing the real issues behind this recession? Remember, it was just 8 years ago that we had a balanced budget and no deficit spending. If we can have it under a Democrat as President, surely we can have it under a Republican if he sticks to the ideals of his party.