The real difference between George W. Bush and Howard Dean:
Honesty, and a fact-based problem solving approach. Howard Dean faces facts. I personally prefer
fact-based action over ideology.
If you want to see the damaging effects of ideology on problem solving,
look at the effects of the Bush budget (including paying for the Iraq
war) and tax cuts.
For the investor in you: The dollar has fallen about 30% over the
past year. And there is no reason for the dollar to
stop its slide now. This means that in global purchasing power, even if
your stocks are up and your house has appreciated a bit–you are probably still net negative.
For the worker in you: To the extent you are living off your
paycheck rather than investments, the situation is even worse–given
that the economic recovery is “jobless.” Even if a you have a
job, you will probably not be getting any raises soon–given your
employer’s option of
simply hiring someone else or shipping the job overseas. The
Chinese products at Wal-Mart may be cheap, but US workers don’t make
decent money. US people are helping to
finance the recovery by refinancing their homes. Hmmm. The
best tradeoffs?
For the citizen and taxpayer in you: States are cutting services
everywhere–in education, especially. E.g. in Oregon most schools
are on a shortened year, after already cutting teachers and
courses. Education and other state services are important in the
medium and long term if we are to sustain our knowledge economy and
provide good livelihoods for our people. The total of state
budget shortfalls, as estimated by the Economist magazine last June, is
between $15B and $25B. By contrast, the cost of the
Iraq war was over $100B just for the initial fighting. And of
course the congress has appropriated $87B more for reconstruction
(including the notorious Haliburton contracts). Hmmm. The
best tradeoffs?
