Why Bush's Economic Poll Numbers Suck

30,000 jobs lost at GM. The jobs the economy is creating won't pay a family's bills. UAL, parent of United Airlines, dumps pensions on taxpayers for pennies on the dollar. In fact, dumping pensions on the Pension Guarantee Corp has become standard practice for those companies no longer interested in paying up on their promises to their employees. Inflation is up but real incomes have dropped for the past five years (the duration of the Bush presidency). Gas hit three dollars a barrel this summer. The Republican bankruptcy law makes it difficult for individuals to go bankrupt but spares corporations from the pain to the point where it's SOP in the airline industry. The number of Americans with no health insurance has gone up every year of the Shrub's reign. Many people face the choice between heating their houses and eating this winter, God forbid they need prescription medicine. The Medicare drug plan ends up costing many seniors more than they paid before. I spent my $23.00 tax cut on the additional cost of my groceries this month. Interest rates are rising, probably to drive the owners of interest-only ARMs into the welcoming arms of the new bankruptcy law. Americans are saddled with immense credit card debt, again losing large shares of what little disposable income they can still muster to interest charges.

On the larger scale, much of New Orleans is still without power over eighty days after Hurricane Katrina and there ain't squat being done to fix the levees. Another storm, we're up to Epsilon, by the way, and the Big Easy will have to be renamed the Big Puddle. The deficit remains at record levels while Congress plays hide-the-weenie with taxpayers over the pork in the Federal budget. Foreigners own our national debt and one day when the Euro is more attractive than the Dollar, they may foreclose, precipitating a devaluation of the Dollar of Chilean proportions. Despite the record deficits, the Shrub and his Republican cronies still want to cut taxes for the rich. Congress can't find the discipline to cut spending and the Shrub certainly won't veto any of his buddies' pet projects. Globalization means American can't afford to make things any more.

George, I write this to you personally: We ain't as dumb as we were when a misguided minority of us elected you President. Americans have become a skeptical lot when it comes to you and your spinmeisters. We believe what we see. You don't see it from Air Force One at sixteen hundred feet, much less from flight level 410 but we on the ground do. The economy sucks, George. For us little people, it sucks bad. And that's why your economic poll numbers suck.