RECESSION OR NOT--HERE WE COME!
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistWe all know it’s coming.
A dreaded recession.
Oil is up.
Gas is up.
The dollar is weak.
Gold prices are past $800 an ounce.
Inflation is climbing.
I’m paying $4.19 a loaf for the good stuff. Not to mention $10 for baby loaves of cheese (a piece), along with pricy eggs, butter, and milk.
Heating our homes is going to be costly this winter.
And the cost of living is out of control.
Bottom line: Our nation simply cannot continue on the same path that it has been–spending itself into debt so recklessly.
But despite the warning signs, people like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke still
believe that everything will be peachy and we all just gotta keep believing in the mythical Tooth Fairy.
“Low interest rates are going to keep our economy going!”“The dollar is weak!” they tell us,
“but it will rebound! You just gotta have faith
!”
Faith?
Faith isn’t watching our government train wreck our economy by spending out of control to the tune of $9.3T dollars. Faith isn’t watching the Fed play Russian roulette with interest rates–dropping them during this housing and credit crunch; instead of tightening and raising rates to keep oil prices from spiraling upwards and keeping a strong check on the
falling dollar.
Faith is asking the US consumer to open their collective eyes and see how much
damage that our government’s reckless economic policies are doing to us–
the American citizen.
That’s the open reality here. Not these fantasy comments on how the economy is going to continue to weather this and that–when the reality on the ground says much differently.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: debt, economy, fantasy, gold, interest rates, oil, reality
NO CHILD LEFT ALIVE?
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistFor six years, George Bush and the Republican Congress had spent American taxpayer monies to the tune of $9.3 trillion dollars to date–most of it going to tax cuts for the rich and the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan.
For six years, Bush had vetoed not one spending bill proffered by the GOP.
But suddenly, Bush is flip-flopping on his 2004 promise to
expand a children’s health insurance coverage plan; known as SCHIP–in an effort to diplace millions more poor children whom otherwise can't receive coverage otherwise outside the current program.
The President is claiming that the program overreaches into the middle-class–and has become too expensive to maintain.
He claims that Democrats are just in it for the political points, but many of his own party whom support the program openly are
dismayed that the President would go against himself and his promise to help expand and continue funding a much needed program for the poor.
A program that currently helps 6.6 million children get the care that they
need.
Ironically, Bush just sent Congress legislation demanding that he gets additional money for the wars in the Middle East–totaling upwards of $245B.
But to spend an additional $35B over the next 5 years to keep those 6.6 million kids from getting sick or
worse–when we spend on average $120B to $130B a year
in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Nah.
Bush just thinks that’s just too
expensive.
After all, with just 15 months left his presidency, W is suddenly
eager to re-establish himself and his legacy as being
fiscally conservative.
Unfortunately for him, it’s come far too late to be anything but a big spender.
All at the expense of our children’s health of course.
But that doesn't seem to bother Bush at all.
And why should it?
He's not paying for it. But our kids are.
Or they will be as soon as Bush vetoes the bill.Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Afghanistan, Bush, children's, conservative, debt, fiscally, healthcare, Iraq, legacy, trillions
