November 5, 2004
President Bush said yesterday, "I earned capital in the campaign, political
capital, and now I intend to spend it." Translation: President Bush
and congressional conservatives plan to drive the country into severe economic
distress by permanently extending supply-side tax cuts for the wealthy,
privatizing Social Security, and giving more handouts to corporations with no
means to pay for these schemes. All of this domestic spending will come on top
of potentially hundreds of billions of dollars that will be spent in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
* President Bush and congressional
conservatives have promised trillions of dollars in corporate kickbacks and tax
cuts for the wealthy. Over the past four years, conservatives spent
lavishly on a faulty Medicare drug program, corporate tax subsidies, a bloated
farm bill, and multiple rounds of tax handouts to the rich. Now they want
to gut Social Security by opening a $2 trillion hole in the retirement program
and ensuring billions in handouts to the financial services sector.
* They have no intention of paying for these schemes. The days of
conservative fiscal hawks are long gone. The current crop of conservative
leaders believes it's their duty to capture government resources to dole out as
they see fit. They care little if the government falls into bankruptcy or
the American economy grinds to a halt. The current situation makes it
impossible to properly prepare for the retirement of the baby boom retirement,
yet the president has offered no viable solutions to our longer-term fiscal
challenges.
* The president's corporate backers will be laughing all
the way to the bank while American taxpayers will be forced to clean up the
mess. Who wins in this scheme? Energy companies, the pharmaceutical
industry, health insurers, and the financial services sector all paid lavishly
to elect Bush and his cohorts and now expect a return on their investment. But
generations of American taxpayers will have to pay to clean up this fiscal
disaster long after the president has retired to the ranch."
Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress Action Fund.
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