NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Somebody picked Bush to vote for!
Thats it! Time for a little lesson on our little friend, George W. Bush. (A lot of is from the link
http://www.emogame.com/bushgame.html posted by Sgt. Pepper)
Federal Deficit/Surplus
In the early 80's and 90's President Reagan and Bush Sr. claimed that supply-side econimics would lead to a boost in the economy that would eliminate the record deficits "in two, maybe three years."
They bleieved that granting tax cuts to the richest would lead to growth and expansion in the economy, but even people in these administrations called these polocies "Trojan Horses" scams to funnel money to the rich.
George Bush Sr. was running a record annual deficit of $290 billion. The United States was in recession and future generations would have to pay the debt.
When Clinton took over in 1992, he reversed the Reagan and Bush formulas, raising taxes on the wealthy and reducing them on the lowest wage earners. Many Republicans predicted the arrival of the Apocalypse, Bob Dole said the economy would collapse, and Newt Gingrich said the world would fall into another Great Depression.
BUT, between 1992 and 2000, the U.S. economy provided the longest sustained economic expansion in U.S. history. It created more than 18 million new jobs, the highest level of job creation ever recorded. At the time of Clinton's presidency, the U.S. economy was booming with a $236 billion surplus.
BUT!!!, when Bush Jr. gained presidency in 2001, he brought back the economic principles of his father and gave tax cut after tax cut to the rich. In just one term, Bush managed to turn a $236 billion surplus into a $500 billion deficit. The largest in the history of the United States.
While the poor suffered, debt piled up, health care costs skyrocketed, and social security funds would be decimated, the rich grew even wealthier.
Bush defended his policies and blamed the "Clinton recession," Al-Qaeda, and the war in Iraq for his record-high deficit.
But who was to really blame for this deficit?
At the end of the Clinton presidency, it was extimated that the ten-year budget projection would yield a $5.6 trillion surplus. In his first days of president, George W. Bush skimmed 1.3 trillion and gave it to the wealthy.
In 2000, when running for president, George W. Bush made a speech where he promised not to touch the $2.5 trillion Clinton had set aside to fix the grave Social Security problems looming in the future. Within the first year of his presidency, he had broken his promise.
And within another year, the entire Social Security "lock box" had been completly depleted and it was apparant that deficits would run in the future.
Bush supporters like to blame national security and defending the United States from terrorists and Saddam Hussein, but according to the figures released by the bipartisian Congressional Budget Office, the cost of his tax cuts were 3 times as great as the cost for war -- including increased spending on homeland security and rebuilding after Septenber 11th.
Bushes second round of tax cuts in 2003 ran up more debts and even Bsuh's former secretary of treasury Paul O'Neil said the money could be better spent and that his tax cuts served as a means for political gain.
In the end, Bush's economic policies left the U.S. with a future that carries $5.6 trillion of extra debt in the next ten years.
A turn around of nearly $11 trillion in just one term!
The Estate Tax
The Estate Tax is a tax where people have to pay to recieve an inheritence. A large portion of Bush's tax cuts included the repeal of the Estate tax. Bush emphasized how this $1.3 trillion tax cut targeted middle-class income families and not just the rich. Bush justified the repeal of the Estate Tax by claiming it was causing poor farmers to lose their farms and cited cases where repeal could saved farmers thousands of dollars.
BUT! The Estate Tax is largely only applicable to the millionaires and billionaires. Only the wealthiest 2% of the population with estates worth more than $1.5 million pay any tax.
Elimination of the tax will reduce federal revenue by $982 billion over the next 20 years. All so that the rich can keep their money. Oh, and no poor farmer in the history of the United States has ever had to sell his farm to in order to pay the Estate Tax. In fact, the tax has special exemptions that protect farmers and small businesses from having to pay any Estate Tax.
It was a ridiculous scheme created to mask the billions of dollars that would go back Bush's millionair buddies, business colleages, cabinet members, and cabinet supporters for generations to come.
The Dividend Tax
Another Tax which was repealed by Bush was the Dividend Tax. The Dividend Tax is the tax where when that corporation make money, the government takes away some of that money in taxes, and when the corporation gives out extra profit to its shareholders in the form of dividneds, but since these dividends count as profit some of it is taken away in taxes by the goverment. The same money is taxed twice, so it is called "double taxation."
Bush said that elimination of the tax on investors would stimualte economic growth by creating more incentive for corporations to give out dividends and for investors to buy stock.
But wait, how much money would the guy who pumps your has have tied up in shares of Microsoft? Even for the middle-class who may have money in the stock market, how much is that handful of shares actually doing for them? Not a lot.
So who were these investors that these $300 billion were going to? Of course, the millionaires and billionaires. The only use they would have with the money saved would be to buy up larger percentages of companies, and find clever ways to hide their money in tax shelters.
More on Tax Cuts
The first major tax cuts was had 41% of the $1.3 trillion used go to the top 20% (in terms of income) of the population
In the second rounds of tax cuts in 2003, 71% of the tax cuts went to the pockets of the top 20% of Americans. So 38% of that money went back into the pockets of the top 1% of Americans so that the CEO's, millionaires, and billionaires, of America can get richer.
By giving the top 1% of Americans massive tax cuts, Bush would have those rich and powerful poeple on his side. 1/3 of Americans cannot even afford health care anymore and all Bush can think about is making the rich richer. So far, Bush has spent more money on tax cuts for the rich than on education incentives.
The People and other things
Currently, CEO's of American corporations earn about 500 times more than the average worker does. Also, the average American worker works 9 weeks more per year than Europeans workers do. They recieve little extra pay and less benifits.
The Bush Administration has also lost 1.6 millionjobs, and the only president who has lost more jobs in one term is Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression.
Bush has also caused 3 million more people to live without health care, which makes a total of 40 million people without health care.
There are currently 33 million Americans living in poverty.
30 years of environmental polices destroyed.
The allowing of corporations to exploit the American people (Enron, anyone?)
The approval and use of tax shelters robbing the United States of $70 billion a year (which Kerry has promised to put an end to)
Leaving education initiatives underfunded by $9 billion.
Creating a right-wing Christian agenda affecting women's rights, gay rights, freedom of speech, stem cell research, and privacy.
ALSO - A war started over Weapons of Mass Destruction, which were never found because they never existed.
A lack of planning in the Iraqi occupation that has lead to the deaths of hundreds of troops and at over ten thousand iraqis.
He has also caused the alienation of the international community.
DO THE RIGHT THING AND DO NOT VOTE FOR BUSH
