Monday, September 01, 2003
Zelmo's State Of The Union Address ~ Who is to blame?
There is a lot of talk going on out there regarding the Bush Jr. Administration and its bumbling klutziness when it comes to just about every major policy agenda in the world today. But the one most pressing and vital issue that currently plagues this country is our struggling economy. True, ours is still the most powerful nation in the entire world. Yet the fact remains that the U.S. economy is struggling, but it's not entirely because of Dubya, like so many idiots out there are quick to rant about. True, he's not helping the economy much by spreading our resources way too thin by sending our troops overseas and funding wars that will hurt us even more financially further down the road, but what else can we do?
Al-Qaeda caught the U.S. with their pants down on 9/11, when our economy was already struggling. But saying that the terrorists have already won is stupid. Did the Nazis "already win" while they were bombing London back in World War II? They probably thought that they did, but the Brits sure as hell didn't, and neither did the U.S. who hadn't yet entered the war.
The current economy and its faults could be blamed on one, or all, of three things: the change of policy at the Federal Reserve that abandoned the 6% unemployment rate limit about 8 years ago, the stock market bubble that caused a 14 trillion increase in stock holdings over the past 12 years which caused an increased degree in spending among upper income households (both of those reasons are covered in Clinton's Economic Legacy, an article by Mark Weisbrot, Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington). The third reason, in my opinion, is the increase in the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour, which began in 1997.
Now the first two reasons why our economy is struggling now had nothing to do with the Clinton Administration, though he and his supporters have no problem with taking credit for the economic boom of the 1990s, even though they had no control over it whatsoever. But ultimately, that boom is what everyone is comparing our current economic status to, which is nowhere near what it was 10 years ago. Back in the '90s, we in the U.S. were thriving. We had won the war in the Persian Gulf, the economy was doing good, our President at the time had managed to quell North Korea's horniness for nuclear war for the time being, etc. Nowadays, the United States economy is starting to compare to that of the early 1980s. 9/11 certainly hasn't helped the situation, but the beginnings of the current economic woes started to rear its ugly head way back in 1998 during the Clinton Adminstration, when the Federal Reserve "financed an unsustainable increase in total demand starting in 1998" -- On The Origins Of The Long Boom.
The Clinton Administration, however, is solely to blame for the third reason for our current economic woes. It alone, endorsed the untimely raising of the U.S. minimum wage by such an astronomical degree. Now, a 90 cent increase in the minimum wage might seem like pocket change to you and me, but multiply that number by millions of minimum wage workers, and millions more that have entered our country (many of them illegally) over the recent years, and that pocket change adds up to quite a lot of money. More money than this current economy can hope to withstand.
Now, I don't 100% endorse the current Bush Administration's decision to overextend our resources; though I voted for Dubya, I am not always in agreement with some of his policies. But I do endorse the War On Terror in taking the fight to our enemy in any way possible, even if it means at the expense of our allies and our economy. I would like the Bush Administration to make better decisions as to how it plans to meet that end, but the mission itself is a righteous one; Al Qaeda has declared war on Americans, so it is our obligation to return the favor and run them down and kill them and their families if need be.
That being said, the current economic woes are NOT all Bush Jr.'s fault. Those three faults lie solely within the reign of the Clinton Administration, with one of them being the direct fault of Clinton. Though our current president has spread our forces and resources too thin, and hardly without much choice I might add, our previous President was responsible for spreading our resources too thin as well.
Regardless, anything beats having that stupid fucker Al Gore in the Oval Office right now. Talk about dodging the bullet there!
Which brings us to our Daily Motto for September 1st, 2003: Al Gore Is A Dumbass.
Have a nice day!
(0) comments
Al-Qaeda caught the U.S. with their pants down on 9/11, when our economy was already struggling. But saying that the terrorists have already won is stupid. Did the Nazis "already win" while they were bombing London back in World War II? They probably thought that they did, but the Brits sure as hell didn't, and neither did the U.S. who hadn't yet entered the war.
The current economy and its faults could be blamed on one, or all, of three things: the change of policy at the Federal Reserve that abandoned the 6% unemployment rate limit about 8 years ago, the stock market bubble that caused a 14 trillion increase in stock holdings over the past 12 years which caused an increased degree in spending among upper income households (both of those reasons are covered in Clinton's Economic Legacy, an article by Mark Weisbrot, Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington). The third reason, in my opinion, is the increase in the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.15 an hour, which began in 1997.
Now the first two reasons why our economy is struggling now had nothing to do with the Clinton Administration, though he and his supporters have no problem with taking credit for the economic boom of the 1990s, even though they had no control over it whatsoever. But ultimately, that boom is what everyone is comparing our current economic status to, which is nowhere near what it was 10 years ago. Back in the '90s, we in the U.S. were thriving. We had won the war in the Persian Gulf, the economy was doing good, our President at the time had managed to quell North Korea's horniness for nuclear war for the time being, etc. Nowadays, the United States economy is starting to compare to that of the early 1980s. 9/11 certainly hasn't helped the situation, but the beginnings of the current economic woes started to rear its ugly head way back in 1998 during the Clinton Adminstration, when the Federal Reserve "financed an unsustainable increase in total demand starting in 1998" -- On The Origins Of The Long Boom.
The Clinton Administration, however, is solely to blame for the third reason for our current economic woes. It alone, endorsed the untimely raising of the U.S. minimum wage by such an astronomical degree. Now, a 90 cent increase in the minimum wage might seem like pocket change to you and me, but multiply that number by millions of minimum wage workers, and millions more that have entered our country (many of them illegally) over the recent years, and that pocket change adds up to quite a lot of money. More money than this current economy can hope to withstand.
Now, I don't 100% endorse the current Bush Administration's decision to overextend our resources; though I voted for Dubya, I am not always in agreement with some of his policies. But I do endorse the War On Terror in taking the fight to our enemy in any way possible, even if it means at the expense of our allies and our economy. I would like the Bush Administration to make better decisions as to how it plans to meet that end, but the mission itself is a righteous one; Al Qaeda has declared war on Americans, so it is our obligation to return the favor and run them down and kill them and their families if need be.
That being said, the current economic woes are NOT all Bush Jr.'s fault. Those three faults lie solely within the reign of the Clinton Administration, with one of them being the direct fault of Clinton. Though our current president has spread our forces and resources too thin, and hardly without much choice I might add, our previous President was responsible for spreading our resources too thin as well.
Regardless, anything beats having that stupid fucker Al Gore in the Oval Office right now. Talk about dodging the bullet there!
Which brings us to our Daily Motto for September 1st, 2003: Al Gore Is A Dumbass.
Have a nice day!
(0) comments
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