Editorial Template

      I have to complement President Bush on his state of the union speech. His speech writers and his speech training instructor did a great job. While I disagree with much of what he said, he did a great job of making the speech. Many times when he has made a speech or comments at night, he has sounded like he was drunk. Apparently, he has developed more skill at concealing his drinking. Clearly, he was not boozing and snoozing while he was training for this speech.
      In his state of the union speech, President Bush vowed that he would not burdened future generations with a growing budget deficit, a lagging economy, and a crisis in health care. Yet, everything he is doing is indicating that he will deliver a worse federal deficit than did President Reagan and his Social Security proposal would wreck retirement for millions of people.
      According to the news media, the first three months of fiscal 2003, President Bush has run a deficit of $109 billion dollars. The deficit is getting worse and four quarters of the same thing amounts to $436 billion for the fiscal year. When you add the proposed tax cut and a war with Iraq, the final total federal deficit for this fiscal year would probably be about $700 billion, more than double the President Reagan federal deficit record.
      If Mr. Bush remains president for the next six years, it is very likely that our federal debt could go up as much as $6 trillion dollars. The interest cost on our current federal debt has been ranging around $250 billion annually, a huge part of everyone's Federal income tax. With a $6 billion increase, the added interest cost would virtually wipe out most of the Democratic benefits that have been created by the Democratic Party and unions since the end of the first hundred and fifty six years of plutocracy, which ended with the Hoover Depression.
      The first Bush tax cut did not help the economy, but did reward his rich campaign contributors and commenced the federal debt explosion similar to the Reagan federal debt explosion. Clearly, a tax cut will not help our economy but instead, will increase the federal debt. A skillfully targeted tax credit for activities that would create employment is the correct way to go. A one time tax credit to businesses in the amount of $1000 for each new job created that produced at least $2000 in additional income tax would produce a considerable number of jobs and would not increase the federal deficit. Instead, the results would be exactly the opposite of the tax cut plan proposed by President Bush.
      There are two main reasons that the economy has gotten in such bad shape including a huge unemployment problem. One is that Bush did not put military guards on commercial airline flights along with instantly beefing up airport security when the 911 terrorist attack occurred. The second one is that the Republican-controlled Congress in 1998, opened the floodgates to corporate mergers, which caused an epidemic of ill-conceived over-priced mergers and buy-outs that destroyed numerous corporations along with a huge number of jobs and a stock market crash. This also includes the corporate thefts, phony profits, bloated rigged stock prices, and insider trading by Enron and other Bush cronies.
      Immediately after the 911 attack, I sent an open letter editorial to Senators Cleland and Miller urging them to propose that four or five hand-to-hand combat trained military personnel be placed on every airline flight to prevent hijacking and eliminate fear for airline passengers. This would have been extremely appropriate because our military is for the express purpose of national security. This would have prevented the loss of airline traffic, prevented the loss of billions of dollars by our airlines, as well as the loss of a huge number of airline jobs. A copy of this open letter editorial may be examined at www.democraticexcellence.com, click on Archive Editorials, then click on terroristdefensestra..>.
      When the first Bush tax cut was being debated, I sent an open letter editorial to Senators Cleland and Miller urging them to propose a targeted tax credit in lieu of the Bush tax cut proposal. I listed 15 suggested areas for tax credits that would have produced enough jobs that would have prevented the then imminent depression. A copy of this open letter editorial may be examined at www.democraticexcellence.com, click on Archive Editorials, then click on openltrtoclelandmill..>.
      Mr. Bush claims that he has evidence that Saddam Hussein possesses concealed weapons of mass destruction. If in fact he does actually have that evidence, he should provide it to the weapons inspectors in Iraq so they can locate, expose, and report them. If the weapons can actually be Exposed, Saddam Hussein would then have to either destroy the weapons or it would be time to go to war with UN approval.
      Mr. Bush said, " I will defend the freedom and security of the American people." This rings very hollow in view of the fact that he receives terrorist activity briefings daily and was peculiarly in Florida teaching a kindergarten class on the very day when the White House was a scheduled targeted in the 911 terrorist attack. He was also peculiarly silent about terrorist activities and Saddam Hussein prior to the 911 attack. It is also extremely peculiar that Mr. Bush has vigorously prevented any investigation regarding terrorist activity information he had received prior to the 911 terrorist attack. This information must be immediately exposed to the American public.
      Also, since nothing has substantially changed in Iraq since Mr. Bush became president, he needs to explain why he was so silent about Saddam Hussein prior to 911 and is now so anxious to have a war with Iraq at this time.
      President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that "everything that happens in politics was planned that way by someone or group of people who had the power to make it happen". This makes it clear that all of the things that have been happening have been planned that way and are not accidental.
      I do not mean to imply that I am smarter than the people in Washington, although I do have a great deal of training and experience in many subjects, which includes "Real World Economics" and politics. However, it has to be obvious that they thought of the same things I have suggested but did not want the results that would have occurred had my suggestions been implemented. Clearly, everything is working exactly according to their plan.