I recently received a copy of a press release from the Bush camp highlighting President Bush's economic strategy. They'd have us believe the Republicans are really concerned about your wallet. See if this hits you the way it does me.

5/1/02

President Bush's Tax Relief Is Helping The Economy - Now Is Exactly The Wrong Time To Raise Taxes: It's a good thing we cut taxes last year. Families are receiving larger refunds spurring consumer spending at a critical juncture in the recovery. Democrats who seek to raise taxes would inflict a crushing blow on our economy at a turning point where recovery appears to be taking hold.

• We Must Hold The Line On Spending: The President has said that it is critical to hold the line on spending this year. After necessary funding to win the war against terror and protect Americans at home, the President's budget balances these needs by slowing the growth of other government spending to less than 2%.
• The President Said He Will Use His Veto To Keep Spending Down: The only check on government spending is the President's veto and President Bush is committed to fiscal responsibility and will use the veto accordingly.
• Balanced Budgets And a Return To Surplus Are Still Within Reach: If spending is controlled and the President's budget is followed, the government could return to surpluses as soon as FY 2004. This is critical to economic recovery and long-term growth.
• We Cannot Repeat Mistakes Made In The Past: In the 1960s, when increased spending required by war was not balanced by slower spending growth in the rest of government, the economic consequences in the 1970s were dire.

The Bush Ranch
Crawford, Texas
April 26, 2002

Here's my take on the above.

Tax Relief Is Helping The Economy. Finally someone in Washington recognizes the fact that high taxes are bad for the economy and leaving people more of their own money to spend as they please is good for the economy.

We Must Hold The Line On Spending. Political Double Speak. They'd have you believe that they are reducing spending when in fact the spending on "national defense" and "homeland security" has jumped by 7% (plus off-budget contingencies), and "other government spending" has grown by 2%. Even 2% of Two Trillion Dollars is a LOT of money.

The President Said He Will Use His Veto To Keep Spending Down. I certainly hope he will, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Balanced Budgets And a Return To Surplus. The US federal budget is in excess of $2 Trillion per year - far more than is necessary or prudent. We should be working on reducing both the cost and inefficiencies within the government. A surplus only means that the government is taking too much from the taxpayers.

We Cannot Repeat Mistakes Made In The Past. We can and are making the same mistakes that were made in the 60's, in fact we are still funding programs that were started in the 60's and 70's and have never been successful. Many of these programs should have been scrapped as failures years ago. Instead we continue to throw good money after bad into the War on Poverty (1965), the War on Illiteracy (1968?), the War on Drugs (1972), the War on Crime (1980), and other lost wars.

Write your Congressman and Senators today. Let them know you are disgusted and tired of being extorted for more and more money that is just being squandered by Congress. Ask them where the return is on your investment. Call them to task for mismanaging the wealth of the nation. And then contact your State representatives to work on reducing costs at the state level.

You can look up contact information for your Congressman and Senators at:
US House of Representatives
and
US Senate

Cory Layne
Editor

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