The Bush/McCain Economy: Suicide for the Middle, Lower Class

I am not an economist or mathematician, In these areas I am a relatively ignorant lay-person. Just another working class stiff trying to make sense of it all. Please feel free to correct any mistakes I may make in the particulars, but I am more interested in the overview. I don’t know much.

But I am not blind.

It’s simple stuff really, on the surface where folks like me see it. It only gets complex when you listen to the Republican Spinmeisters when they try to justify and whine their way out of what they have inflicted on the country..

What is the BushMcCain economic policy? As I have said, all I can do is describe what I see from the layman’s perspective. The same old trickle down con game that Bush’s own father called voodoo economics when Reagan proposed it while running for office. Other than the eight years that a DEMOCRAT controlled the economy, the American middle and lower classes have been at the mercy of these voodoo econmics. The only change that I can see is that Bush Junior made it even easier for the rich to loot the economy, while the lower and middle class foot the bill. Just as we are footing the bill for the Bear Stearns failure and are about to foot the trillions of dollars necessary to bail out Fannie and Freddie. Which have failed because of the economic policies of Bush/McCain.

The theory is, at least in part, that if we make the rich as rich as possible….

…by  not having them pay their fair share of taxes, they will then spend their riches buying things that Americans make, thus bolstering the economy. That they will be responsible to invest that middle and lower class funded largesse in new businesses creating new jobs. That they will invest in Research and Development to develop new technologies and enterprises. That they will fund entrepreneurship…somehow.  Combine this myth with massive deregulation and replacing responsible oversight 9sound familiar?) With cronies and incompetent political appointments, putting the fox IN CHARGE OF the hen house and looking the other way while the alledgedly smart responsible rich people break the few remaining rules to manipulate and loot the economy. At the core of it is the fallacy that since the rich  are rich, they are smart, responsible, and somehow worthy to be stewards of the economy. Stewards that will allegedly grow the economy in a way that benefits everyone. In other words, creating a new form of economic aristocracy that will direct the entire economy for the benefit of all. Here in America, where supposedly everyone has the chance to be rich. So, are you rich yet? Or are you enjoying the benefits of being trickled down upon? Other than the Clinton years, the Republicans have had since 1976  to make their voodoo economics succeed, to test their theory on the American economy.

How is that working out?

Are YOU better off than you were under Clinton? Is the economy better off? Is the country better off?

We have been conned, America. Conned by the ruling class into believing that what is best for them, is best for all of us. To them, this is a game. They know how to hedge their bets and so feel free to manipulate the markets and the economy for their benefit. They can’t lose if they are wrong. Very few of them will bet all they have on their ‘theories.’ If they lose THEY are not out on the streets with their kids in tow. They will not be living in their cars. YOU will be. THEIR pensions and savings  and survival aren’t at risk, YOURS are.

As we see with the increasing bank and financial institution failures, when they screw up, the government bails them out. When was the last time the government bailed YOU out?  

The rich can afford to gamble with YOUR economy, because they get all the profits and YOU pay for the losses.

In fact, as they have been getting richer, the rest of us have been getting poorer, it has become increasingly harder to make ends meet.

As an intended consequence of the Bush tax cuts, the share of federal taxes paid by the bottom 80% of taxpayers has increased, while the share paid by the top 1% has dropped.

And if you can’t make ends meet, well the Bush/McCain economic policy has cut gutted or eliminated mosty of the safety nets that the DEMOCRATIC president FDR put in place to help……after the last, huge, REPUBLICAN CREATED financial

disaster. If they had their way the would eliminate the safety nets, the, as they call them “entitlements” that stand between the average American and living on the street or in some new Hooverville. The Bush/McCain economic policy includes privatizing Social Security. Taking YOUR money and putting it in the hands of the people who run the markets. The very same people who brought us the housing crisis and $4 a gallon gass and $5 a gallon milk.

Under the Bush/McCain economy, as they will gleefully tell you, many  new billionaires have been created. The part they won’t tell you is that many, many once prosperous middle class Americans have been shoved into the lower class, And that many, many lower class folks have been shoved into poverty.

They won’t talk about that. Or about the legions of uninsured who are on health crisis away from destitution, now that they have changed the bankruptcy laws. They won’t tell you about the people who have been unemployed for so long that they don’t show up on the unemployment stats. They won’t tell you about the inflation that they have created, because they eliminated the essentials like food and gas from the inflation stats. They won’t tell you how unstable an economy that is based on pushing paper around is compared to an economy based on actually producing a product is.

The Bush/McCain economy calls for an ownership society. Guess who gets owned?

It is an economy that exists for one reason and one reason only, to make the rich richer. The Iraq war is a war to make the oil companies and defense contractors richer. Who is paying for this enrichment? Taxpayers….YOU…and your children and grandchildren. They take your tax dollars and give them in No-bid contracts to their cronies. They are doing this all with money that they are borrowing…hundreds of billions pof dollars, trillions by the time the interest is paid off. Borrowed from our major competitor, China, giving them huge leverage on the American economy. Borrowed from the Saudis, the folks who are holding the worlds oil hostage. Bush/McCain have mortgaged our future to our competitors. Smart.

Well, smart for them, since they and their cronies are making billions of off this con job. Dick Cheney for instance is a much richer man than he was when he entered office. Just a coincidence of course.

Bush/McCain and their cronies are doing great. Lamborghini and caviar salesmen are doing great,  selling them toys and treats for their rich and jaded amusements.

How are YOU doing? How is your family doing? How are the people you know doing?

How many houses do you own?

America is SUPPOSSED to be egalitarian, the land of opportunity for ALL. But under the Bush/McCain economic plan their is a top tier of aristocratic rich. The top 10% of Americans now own more of the nations wealth than the bottom 90%.  99% of Americans make less than $250, 000 a year. The Bush/McCain economy has nothing to do with them.  They are, WE are, at best a pesky afterthought in their world. We don’t count.

So, if for some insane reason you want to have an aristocracy of the rich, if you want to see more of the slide of the middle class into the lower class and the lower class into poverty, if you want higher prices and higher unemployment, if you want to see more Americans thrown out of their homes, if you want less money in YOUR pocket, and MORE money in theirs….then by all means, Vote Republican