The Winkest Link

We can NOW call this a Recession, at a very minimum….

The causes of this recession are many and varied but, had the 2000 election turned out differently, the U.S. may have had a shot at avoiding or reducing the damage of this downturn.

Remember, we had many years of budget SURPLUSES during the Clinton administration.  Surpluses tend to keep the economy strong.  Surpluses can be used to solve all sorts of unforeseen problems.  We were actually paying down the national debt.   

It is safe to guess that Al Gore would have continued the same Clinton fiscal policies that led to the surpluses.  Gore has the intellect to appreciate a surplus.

Not George Bush.  GW hated all things ‘Clinton’.  He wanted to convince you that we had a surplus because Clinton had overtaxed you.  Conservatives never tire of demonizing Clinton, so the surplus had to be described as ‘evil’ over-taxation.

Our newly-elected hero, George W. Bush, was brave enough to step up and offer the excess money (the surplus) be returned to the Americans who put it there.

Well, that is what he said to our TV screens.

If that was his real intention, it would simply have been a case of political pandering (and Clinton-bashing), but he had a different idea in mind…  Sell the idea as a tax cut to all Americans, but give the huge majority of it to the very most wealthy.  He didn’t even bother calling it ‘trickle down’… he just lied to us.  

Massive cuts.  Monstrous cuts for (coincidentally) those who had always financed Bush campaigns and given him high-paying jobs.  (Don’t you wish your grandpa was a senator & your dad was a congressman, vice-president & president?)

He was so awful in those jobs they eventually ran him for governor of Texas just to get rid of him.  He has been in the pocket of the very wealthy his whole adult life.

Okay, okay.  What does that have to do with our financial state?  Part of the reason the U.S. has no money is GW (and the Republican congress)….

1)      Gave away the surplus through massive tax breaks to the very-very wealthy

2)      Went on a monster pork spending spree (a very un-conservative thing to do)

3)      Started a war with a non-enemy, Iraq, which costs the U.S. $10 billion per month and has no foreseeable end.

This wiped out our surplus and put us into a devastating hole.

Since we have no ‘surplus’ money to try to right this financial ship, we (you and I) are forced to borrow the money to pay the $700 billion bailout, with $150 billion in excess goodies (pure pork) tossed in just to bribe lawmakers to vote for it….   $700 billion, $850 billion, what’s the difference?

We don’t even know if the $850 billion will solve the problem.

Because we flushed our surpluses, the U.S. now must borrow crazy sums from countries like China, who don’t always have our best interests in mind.

That would be bad enough, but our economy is becoming so distressed that friendly & unfriendly countries may soon not want to take the risk of loaning money to the U.S..

When we can’t even borrow money things will REALLY get bad around here.

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