When I was in my teens, my teachers who were mostly conservative taught me that Republicans stood for something. They were the party of fiscal responsibility. They stood for the founding principles of our Republic. They stood for the hard working families of this nation, and as conservatives they would conserve family values. Today, it doesn’t take much thinking to recognize that all of these principles have been thrown out the window by the party of Lincoln. The nation has accumulated, during the Bush administration, the largest ever-federal deficit. This is no small feat, considering that just four years ago the nation had accumulated a huge surplus. This same administration has launched a virtual ‘war’ on civil liberties and its Department of ‘Justice’ has often incited the violation of freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights. Remember the 2002 memo promoting the use of torture ? They have passed legislation that heaps huge tax cuts and benefits toward the wealthiest Americans, and have consistently left the working class and middle class families of America ‘out in the cold’-- leaving them with the onus of picking up the slack on taxes. So much for the concept that Republicans conserve much of anything ! Take for instance the ‘blank check’ provided to Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root, companies closely tied to Dick Cheney, for the non-bid contracts they have won in Iraq and other places around the world, during these last four years. They, will make billions. Cheney currently receives $100,000 from Halliburton and is set to receive $1 million in deferred compensation.
The recent statistics, regarding how the largest corporations are amassing huge tax savings, while more jobs are being lost and outsourced to other nations, are a joke. As if that weren’t enough Bush environmental policies have consistently sided with corporate profiteering by permitting more pollution. The sad part is that most Americans will only feel the major repercussions of what is being done by this administration a few years from now, and by then probably won’t recognize who gave them the shaft. Whoever is in the White House then will be called to answer for a social tragedy not of his making. In my view, Bush and his cronies are not alone to blame for all this mess, Congress has mainly ‘fallen in-line’ with the Bush doctrine of Robin Hood in reverse. Not surprising though since most Senators and many Congressmen are millionaires themselves. It is hoped that the lone dissenters will one day be given their due honor; men like Byrd, Kucinich, and Kennedy.
Thanks to the Bush administration, 1.3 million more Americans, more women, more children, were classified as poor in 2003. A total of 35.9 million, or one in eight people today live in poverty in the United States of America--and that my friends, is the Bush legacy, a legacy of shameless greed and hypocrisy.
V.S. / Editor
Posted October 8, 2004
URL: www.thecitizenfsr.org
SM 2000-2004