August 21, 2007


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


DISMAL REPUBLICAN NUMBERS

If the majority of Americans voted our economic interests, Republicans would never be in power. From the time of Herbert Hoover, who presided over the Great Depression, until now, the economy has performed much more robustly under Democratic administrations. When Republicans are in power the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The so-called "fiscal discipline" of Republicans has also been abeyance since the Reagan administration. This article by Robert Weiner and John Larmet is at www.truthout.org:

There is a widely held belief that Republicans are better for business than are Democrats. Let's look at the facts.

The wild stock market ride of recent weeks does not compare to the two worst stock events, the crash of 1929 and the 1987 free fall, which also occurred under Republican administrations. Since 1900, Democratic presidents have produced a 12.3% annual return on the S&P 500, Republicans only 8%. Gross Domestic Product growth since 1930 is 5.4% for Democratic presidents and 1.6% for Republican presidents.

Bush inherited from President Clinton an annual federal budget surplus of $236 billion, the largest in American history. Clinton balanced the budget for the first time since 1969. Budget surpluses were expected to total $5.6 trillion between fiscal year 2002 and 2011.

Despite this, Bush transformed the surpluses into a $1.1 trillion annual deficit in just three years because of the Iraq war and his relentless push for permanent tax cuts for wealthy Americans, a new iteration of Herbert Hoover's equally catastrophic "trickle-down" theory. Bragging about a $239 billion deficit sets such a low standard that Bush can claim horrific failure as a good thing for the country. The Bush administration's annual loss of three-quarters of a trillion dollars is unprecedented.