My Life Be Like…

Ronald Reagan is called by some people, the greatest president of our time, so naturally our current president, George W. Bush would stive to be as good a president as Reagan was. This is why there are striking similarities between the policies of the two republican presidents. During reagan’s president he supported “trickle-down economics” dubbed by most people now as “reaganomics” where he would give income tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the nation, hoping that the extra money that they had would then cause them to invest in other things such as factories and manufacturing, giving the lowerclasses more job opertunities and other chances to earn money.

Both administrations seem to favor the wealthier classes. In fact, they don’t seem like they do, these administrations DO support the wealthier classes, making the wealth gap grow bigger and bigger each day. According to the Boston Globe:

About 1.7 million more people fell below the poverty line last year, bringing the total number of poor in the country to 34.6 million. The poverty rate edged higher than 12 percent for the first time in five years, rising to 12.1 percent from 11.7 percent. It was the first time in a decade that the number of poor people has increased for two straight years. More broadly, median household income dropped 1.1 percent between 2001 and 2002, to $42,409.

That is crazy! I thought that the whole point of trickledown economics was to benefit all of the classes, but obviously it is not working if 1.7 million people have just fallen below the poverty line!

Another similarity between the two administrations, is thier policies on defense. Both Reagan and Bush are very supportive of the war effort, and offering funding to help the armed forces. Bush is spending so much on the war in Iraq that it is almost impossible to immagine!

Since he is following in Reagan’s footsteps, Bush thinks that the economy has become much better as a direct effect of his tax cuts, but as a result of the tax cuts and the big government spending on the war money is being drained from the federal budget, therefore less revenue is coming in making teriffic deficits. The deficit has skyrocketed during the Bush administration, therefore making the economy worse on the grand scale. One example is that the housing market is slowing, which effects other things. Just yesterday I heard something on the radio that really intrigued me. Fed Ex expects great revenue losses due to this decline in the housing market, because less people will be shipping things to their new houses. It is amazing to think that all of these effects upon the economy are effected by George Bush’s tax cut program, which he infact modeled after Reagan’s economic policy.

Using Reagan’s policies as a model, Bush has added on to them. A modern example of this is Bush’s policy on the Inheritance Tax, which he is trying very hard to phase out. Some people call this tax, the “death tax” because they are forced to pay taxes on the ususally enormous sums of money that they inherit.  I can understand why Bush would think that people should not have to pay taxes for the money that they inherit, but I mean come on, again he is helping the wealthies classes in the United States, and leaving the other classes behind in their wake. Think about this for a second. Who ususally inherits money? THE WEALTHY CLASS! Many, not all, but much of the wealthy classes come from “old money” or money that is inherited from their ancestors. Now, I am not saying that Bush’s reasoning is wrong. But he should really stop for a second and think about what his new policies could mean. Becasue if he really wants to follow in the footsteps of his economic idol, reagan, the wealth gap should get ready to be rocked and rattled, and stretched beyond belief.

There is more to the blog world than just our little secluded learnerblogs bubble, there are millions of people out there logging on to the internet to write their thoughts and feelings about current domestic issues, and current global issues. Here are some sites that I found interesing, they are mainly political and economic blogs.

• That Political Blog
• National Review Online
• Soldier’s Point of View - My personal favorite

Happy Blogging!

Cliff makes some controversial points in his post, by stating that the government did an excellent job of promoting the general welfare of the people. Although I have to say that I strongly agree with some of the topics that he discusses. Cliff writes:

The largest lesson from Katrina is about New Orleans.  In 2001, a Popular Mechanics article stated the dire situation New Orleans faced.  Interestingly enough, it was published on September 11, 2001, another tragic date in our history.  It is a foolish idea to be pumping time and money into a city that constantly is having water pumped out.  Hopefully, we will learn a lesson from this and not rebuild the city. 

I strongly agree with the point that he is making here. It is a known fact that New Orleans is situated below sea level, making it a catastrophic location for there to be a hurricane because flooding would be that much easier. So, I believe like Cliff, that we should not rebuild the city. Instead, it should be relocated to a different location with a higher elevation which would further protect the city from another disaster like Katrina.

Survival may be the only thing the troops here agree on. The first death of a comrade in battle is always an emotional shock, and the views from the foxhole here are probably as varied as the 34 soldiers. Still, in this hostile stretch of western Iraq, some of the troops have begun to wonder if the presence of United States forces here is worth the cost in American lives.”  - Michael R. Gordon, www.newyorktimes.com

The five year anniversary of September 11th is coming up on monday, marking the day that the United States faced devastation and decided to declare war on terrorists. Soon after, our soldiers were shipped over to the middle east to fight possibly one of the toughest wars of all times. Unlike other wars like the first and second world wars, these soldiers are not fighting against a designated enemy wearing a uniform, but normal men and women wearing civilian clothing which makes it almost impossible to separate the enemies from the innocent. This anniversary also outlines the fact that we have been in the middle east for almost five years, and we have not accompished much. Yes, we have Sadaam Hussein in custody, and we have destroyed the major terrorist training camps and captured many high up terrorists, but now we have found ourselves in a rut not accomplishing anything, fighting against hostile militants who are killing more and more of ours soldiers each day. As the article said, it is very hard to watch one of your comerades be killed in action, the devastation that it puts on one’s emotions is almost unfathomable. Soldiers have begun to question whether this war is worth all that devastation, because really, is it worth innocent american lives to stay in Iraq and look like we are accomplishing something?