Bush on a roll? This is what we get for low standards.

[the_real_38]

The new media message (and the one that I'm sure will be trumpeted until next November) is that 'Bush is on a Roll':

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20031126/ap_on_go_pr_wh/medicare_bush

The economy is 'roaring' and he's enacted Medicare 'reform'.

In reality, we've had one quarter of growth due to expansion in the oil industry, increased military spending, and a splurge of unsustainable spending from home re-financing. Unemployment dropped one-tenth of a percentage point, and economists predict that this time next year it will be two full points higher than it was under President Clinton. In addition, foreign purchase of American securities dropped from 45 to 4 billion dollars a month in September, which means we may have to raise interest rates to attract foreign money to fund our deficit. And the Medicare scam depended on some GOP alliance with the corrupt president of AARP, which stands to make millions as his older members face higher premiums.

But Bush is our little misunderstood genius now, and the media is just getting us around to seeing that.

This is what we get for low standards - the ones our party has set in order to seem centrist. The Demcoratic party has abandoned the notions that:
(1) Health Care is a human right, and the goal should be universal coverage, beside which some scam like this Medicare bill pales in comparison.
(2) The economy should benefit all workers - GDP growth doesn't mean jack if it just means that the rich are getting richer faster than the rest of us are getting poorer. We should settle for nothing less than a social goal of a full-employment economy.
(3) No hustler like George Bush should be allow to fund some sham 'recovery' on margin by running up huge levels of debt. This growth is a political artifact, that we're going to have to pay for later, and maybe sooner.

Our party needs goals, a vision, and most importantly, principles. And to stand by them.

[leftofthedial]

1. well said

Reagan already "proved" the neocon GOP hustler approach to the economy. Write huge bad checks that won't bounce until after you are out of office. Bush I paid the price.

The current POS is making Reagan look like a piker.

[HFishbine]

2. "two full points lower than it was under President Clinton?"

Uh, really? That would be an historic first. Do you have a source for this prediction? It's not in the article you linked to.

[lancdem]

3. Good catch

Could be a typo. The poster might mean 2 full points above what it was under Clinton.

[the_real_38]

4. Sorry I meant two full points higher ...

... I'll edit it.