Published in Home News & Tribune - Central Jersey on 12/27/05

I'm afraid I'm going to have to burst a recent letter writer's bubble concerning how great President Bush is supposed to be doing. The author claims the economy is booming, but for whom? A poll from the American Research Group shows that 63 percent of Americans believe the economy is bad, very bad or terrible, and that 61 percent expect worse in the coming year.

There are good reasons why 43 percent of Americans also believe the economy is in an economic depression. The number of Americans living in poverty is at a six-year high of 37 million. Hourly wages adjusted for inflation have fallen 3 percent since Bush took office, while mortgage debt is the highest it has been in our history. Our savings rate has remained at minus 7 percent under Bush.

Bush has reversed Clinton's budget surpluses and now we have an $8 trillion deficit that no other country in the world can rival. In a time of war (a war Bush created unnecessarily by lying) Bush also decided to give tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy, while our soldiers continue to die at a rate of about 20 to 25 a week — a price too high to pay for Bush and Vice President Cheney's oil war.

Calvin Coolidge also touted the state of the economy before the Great Depression.