The following quotation from the February 5 issue of Newsweek points out that the United States economy during the first two years of the Bush administration is undergoing an economic crisis comparable to the crisis faced by Herbert Hoover during the first two years of his presidency.
“The highlights: U.S. stocks have lost almost $5 trillion of value since Bush took office two years ago, a mind-blowing decline. The market has fallen more (in percentage terms) during Bush’s first two years than in the first two years of any modern president, including Herbert Hoover, who was in charge when the Great Depression began. And you can’t blame the Bush Market on the trauma of 9-11: stocks fell at a much faster rate from Bush’s inauguration through Sept. 10, 2001, than they have since.”
Now this news item speaks only to the grievous losses faced by investors since the United States Supreme Court, in effect, appointed the person who received 600,000 less popular votes than Vice President Al Gore, to the presidency.
Two million Americans have joined the ranks of the unemployed courtesy of the inept leadership provided by President Bush. The total of unemployed today is Nine Million! Shades of The Great Depression.
Add to the above the big deficits that are being rolled up at an unprecedented level.
As Senator Kennedy noted:
“When President Clinton left office, the federal budget showed a very healthy surplus….
“A little over two years ago we were looking forward … to wipe out the national debt, guarantee the future of Social Security and Medicare…and meet a wide range of other priorities.”
Unfortunately, our president has chosen to play a fiscal version of Russian Roulette to provide the ultra-rich with substantial tax cuts.
Such is the sad state of America under the regime of Bush II.
The writer is a retired teacher, Curriculum Coordinator of the Menasha Public Schools and former President of Wisconsin Federation of Teachers. He contributed above article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from Wisconsin, USA.
