Economic Data a Wake-Up Call

Apparently, Republicans are so isolated from mainstream American life they can't see the obvious. Today, for the sixth straight time, the Federal Reserve reported that you, average Americans, are worse off than you were when a man who was investigated seven times and finally found guilty of lying about a blow job held the Presidency. For the six years of the Richenricher in Chief's incumbency, your real incomes have dropped while the benefactors of his economic strategy, the wealthy, have gotten richer.

It's no wonder the Greed Over Principles (GOP) crowd can't understand why the average American thinks the economy is worsening. Their constituencies, the rich and the rich-wannabes, the corporations and the K-Street bandits they created are getting richer. The free lunches are getting better, the campaign contributions, both above and below the table, more generous, the junkets to more out-of-the-way places where the Unwashed Masses, the Voters, can't see them having Lotto-winner fun on our time and at our expense, more frequent. Stocks, whose income is now taxed at a lower rate than a minimum-wage paying job, are on the increase, as are corporate profits. Bankrupcies are down thanks to a draconian program aimed at increasing the profits of the userers that more and more control personal finances. From the GOP perspective, things are good.

From our perspective, my pay raises haven't kept pace with inflation for two years now. I don't know about you, but gas, both natural and pumped into my car's tank, prices have really put a crimp in my buying power. A beginning teacher can't afford a home in Denver. Wage pressure is down, thanks to outsourcing our jobs and failure to create new ones. The sum total of this, Republicans, is that your sponsors are getting richer while your voters are getting poorer. The economic recovery is not benefiting us and that's why we perceive the economy as bad.

It's always a good economy if you're on the profitable side. We voters aren't.