Bush's Revealing Economic Speech
President Bush's economics speech today was a revealing bit of political theater. My quick reaction:
1) Bush urged the Democratic-controlled Congress to extend his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. There's no chance that will happen this session. Now what is interesting is that Barack Obama has already pledged to keep most of the cuts. But despite that, I think John McCain and congressional Republicans will hammer Obama and congressional Democrats on this issue. Fair's fair. Democrats, after all, pound Republicans when they suggest reforming Social Security, even though they always exempt current recipients and folks nearing retirement age from any changes. Also, a weak economy in the fall could make the idea of higher taxes repellent to voters. Remember, the economy was in full recovery mode when Bill Clinton pushed higher taxes in 1992 and 1993.
2) This was an opportunity for Bush to bash congressional proponents of cap-and-trade climate plans, like the Warner-Lieberman bill. But he really mentioned it only in passing:
Today the Senate is debating a bill called the Warner-Lieberman bill, which would impose roughly $6 trillion of new costs on the American economy. There's a much better way to address the environment than imposing these costs on the job creators, which will ultimately have to be borne by American consumers. And I urge the Congress to be very careful about running up enormous costs for future generations of Americans.
The problem, of course, is that McCain, his party's presidential nominee, supports the same approach. There really is an opportunity for some candidate to make the case that he wants to lower the cost of living for Americans. Cap-and-trade will raise energy costs for Americans already shell shocked by higher gas prices. One way to offset those costs is by using the proceeds from emission permit auctions to cut taxes.
Tags: presidential election 2008 | taxes | George W. Bush
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Enormous Costs for Future Generations
I found it laughable as I read different articles on this speech. One article quotes President Bush as saying: "I urge the Congress to be very careful about running up enormous costs for future generations of Americans. We'll work with the Congress, but the idea of a huge spending bill fueled by tax increases isn't the right way to proceed." I would like to know how he justifies the huge deficits we have run up over the last few years. These are nothing more than "enormous costs for future generations". If you want something now, pay for it NOW!
I have no children on whom the burden will fall, but I do not want to burden the children of others with my debt!
The Bush speech 06/06/08
The only good thing that I can say regarding this president is that I never voted for him or any of his people. After seeing the 06/06/08 speech on the economy [I'm presently laid off so I was able to catch the, "avoid prime time", midday broadcast] I have to wonder if this guy has an active brain cell in his head. When Ken Lay and his lackeys drove ENRON off into the ditch, someone sent him a letter that read "I would like to know if you have recently been smoking crack, as it would explain a lot." After hearing Bush hand the responsibilities to stimulate the economy back at congress with the lame "make mah tax cuts permenent'", and the ever repeating "we gotta drill fer more domestic awl in this country", I have to ask that same question, and one more as well: "aren't there legal charges that can be filed here? Here's a guy who has become a reverse "Robin Hood" by making as many of his rich friends richer still at the expense of every common citizen in this country. By his own lies and actions, made obvious by the latest Senate intelligence report. he has murdered at least 100,000 people in the world so far. Add to that the disregard of the Geneva Convention and the "all too eager to resort to torture" mentality, the absolute tanking of the dollar, and gasoline at $4.35 a gallon, I really hope that this president and his people spend the rest of their worthless lives locked up in a federal penitentiary.
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