Actually I wanted to title this post "Why our monetary system hurts the poor the most" but it wasn't nearly as exciting...but I'll try to work in monkeys flinging their excrement into this post anyway.
The Republican Party should be absolutely ashamed of their legacy since Bush has become elected. Even from the field of candidates looking to get into the White House I've not found much disgust from what has happened over the last eight years.
Our monetary policy is the worst part of this legacy and as a result it has hurt our poorest citizens the most. Bush will tell you that he helped the poor the most by reducing what was a 15% marginal taxation rate to 10% and has kept inflation under control. But there's a huge flaw to this logic.
The budget has bloated completely out of control so that spending (both discretionary and non-discretionary) has increased beyond that of the Clinton administration and rivals the pace of LBJ. This remains a fact while the Iraq War stays completely off budget as some sort of supplemental budget (like a new credit card you don't have to pay off for a few years)
While we're increasing monetary supply to help pay for these annual deficits, this new money ends up in the hands of banks and corporations first while its relative value is high. By the time it gets into the wallets and purses of citizens it now reflects the buying power of a fully devalued dollar. The statistic that inflation is kept under control does not reflect the buying power of the federal reserve currency that continues to drop and fails to compete internationally.
The government can do much more for the poor than to throw out more programs like monkeys flinging poo (I told you I'd get to it eventually). The federal government could reduce spending and reduce the need to overextend our monetary system. This would increase the buying power of poor individuals and make the small amount of money they possess go further. It would also help senior citizens who live off of pensions and social security. These people don't need more programs, they need a federal government who cares about the value of money they already possess.
The next president (Democrat or Republican) must be one who understands sound fiscal policies that protect our monetary supply. Selling off our Federal Reserve debt to China (our current method of financing our debt) is not a long term solution and one that will eventually threaten our national security far more than Mexicans crossing our southern border or insurgents in Baghdad.
Side note: I'm feeling better now as the antibiotics seemed to have found the problem in my lungs and solved it. Thank you for the many well-wishers. Let's hope for fewer medicated blog posts in the coming months and weeks.
2 comments:
Preach on, brother. I've long said that Iraq was just a horrifying sideshow to the more permanent problem: the insane spending of the Bush administration.
The man who never vetoed a spending bill (until a bill sponsored by Dems finally hit his desk) has been spending money like an NBA player in a strip club for over six years.
While he's been filling the wallets of his rich oil buddies, I see no evidence that he's helped the poor or the middle class. When is he going to address the biggest tax increase in history, the AMT? Funny how that one will hit the middle class without effecting the rich whatsoever. So much for Republican doublespeak about tax cuts.
I just got back from Europe, where I spent three weeks touring Italy and Germany. It was a once in a lifetime trip. Once in a lifetime because I'll never be able to afford another trip like it. Have you seen how worthless the dollar is these days? It's a cruel feeling to buy something for a "few" Euro and then do the math and discover that you just spent $100 for a leather tote bag.
I felt like a Canadian, and that's a terrible feeling. We might as well start colorizing the dollar like our buddies up north, because the dollar is asswipe right now.
And that's the good news. Now that the housing market is tumbling like a Romanian gymnast, the only thing that artificially held up Bush's economy is swiftly dying. The dollar will be as useless as German Notgeld from the 1920s, when that happens.
My advice to travelers is to stow away on a boat to get to Europe. Once you're there, mug Europeans to collect enough Euro to eat and sleep on. Europeans are smaller and weaker than we are, from my observation, so it's no problem. It's the only way you can afford to go there now.
i worked for a rightwing GOPer running for congress in the 90s.
he tried to explain the hidden taxation practiced by the federal reseve, but the folks couldnt get it. they where more concerned over his lebanese birth to care that he was a local professor, phd in economics.
he lost a squeaker.
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