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Have we and our forefathers sacrificed and died to make the American Dream a reality, only to be forced into poverty and to be beholden to the rich and super rich of this country for the "trickle down" economic opportunity to be of service to them and the opportunity for our children to become cannon fodder in their economic expansionist wars?

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The National Debt - Which Your Children and Your Children's Children Will Have to Pay Off:
*    The Surplus the Year before Bush Took Office -                $5.6 Trillion
*    The National Debt Today -                            $8.3 Trillion
*    The Total Debt Run Up By These "Fiscally Conservative" Republicans -     $13.9 Trillion

The Trade Deficit - What We're Really Paying For Those "Cheap T-Shirts":

*    The Total 2005 Trade Deficit -                         $720 Billion
*    The 2005 Trade Deficit with China Alone -                    $202 Billion
*    The Projected 2006 Trade Deficit -                    Over    $800 Billion

The Wealth Gap:

*    The US Rank in the Gap between the Richest and Poorest Among the
Developed Countries -                                       1st
*    The Percent of Wealth Owned by the Richest 1% of Americans -        33.4%
*    The Percent of Wealth Owned by the bottom 90% of Americans -        30.4%
*    The Percent of Wealth Owned by to bottom 50% of Americans -          2.5%

Jobs - Reinforcing my Claim that this Administration Touted Economic Recovery Has Been a "Jobless Recovery":

*    The Percentage of the American Workforce Employed in 2000 -         64.4%
*    The Percentage Employed Today -                        62.9%
*    The Net Job Creation During the Clinton Administration (8 Years) -    22.7 Million
*    The Net Job Creation Under Bush (5 ˝ Years) -                  2.6 Million
*    The Number of Manufacturing Jobs Lost Under Bush -              2.9 Million
*    The Number of Jobs Needed Each Month to Cover Growing Workforce -     150,000
*    The Average Number of Jobs Created Each Month Under Bush -           41,000
*    The Official Unemployment Rate (7 Million People) -            4.6%
What This Rate Doesn't Count
o    The Number of Long Term Unemployed Americans -         1.4 Million
o    Discouraged Workers That Have Given Up -                     323,000
o    Underemployed and Part Time Workers -                   14 Million
o    The Number Working More Than One Job    -             7.8 Million

Of the 30 occupations projected to have the greatest job growth between now and 2014, only six require as much as a bachelor's degree. Most are service jobs requiring only short term on-the-job training and are low or very low paying with minimum or no benefits. The first high tech job position ranked in the top 30 comes in at number "19" and is computer software engineers. (Only 222,000 of those will be required between now and 2014!). My question to the Bushevicks, "when our kids and our laid off workers are told that they need a higher education or retraining to get the jobs for the 21st Century, what are these fantastic high paying jobs and what mythical training is required?"

Wages:

*    The Rise in Wages for Blue Collar and Service Workers (1) since 2001 -    None - Nada!!
*    The Rise in the Cost of Living Since 2001 (When Bush Took Office) -       8.1%
*    The Number of Years since 2001 That Middle-Class Families Have
Seen Their Incomes Fall -                      All 5 Years
*    The Share of National Income Going to Corporate Profits -             7.0% in 2001
12.2 % Today
*    The Share of the National Income for Blue Collar and Service Workers -    58.6% in 2001
56.2% Today
o    The US Rank Among Developed Nations For Income "Disparity"
Between the Richest Elites and Everyone Else (2) -                       #3    
*    The Ratio of Average CEO Pay to Average Workers Pay
o    1982                                      42 to 1
o    2003                                            300 to 1
o    2006 ($11.8 Million to $27,460)                    431 to 1

Note (1) they are 80% of the total workforce
Note (2) so much for the US being the "land of opportunity"

Taxes:

The 2001 Tax Cut
o    Average cut for people making under $50,000 a year (71%) -               $425
o    Average cut for people making $1 Million a year (0.1%) -             $59,216
o    Average cut for people making more than $10 Million a year (.00004%) -    $521,905

The 2003 Tax Cut For Capital gains and Dividends
o    Average cut for people making under $50,000 a year (71%) -                 $10
o    Average cut for people making $1 Million a year (0.1%) -             $25,450
o    Average cut for people making more than $10 Million a year (.00004%) -    $497,463

The 2006 Extension of Tax Cuts For Capital gains and Dividends
o    Average cut for people making under $50,000 a year (71%) -                   $3
o    Average cut for people making $1 Million a year (0.1%) -             $59,972

Please notice that these tax cuts aren't going to "hard working Americans" as Bush claims, they are going to the rich and super rich, like the Bushes and the Cheneys and their friends. That is, the "Haves and Have Mores" that Bush says are "His Base".

Along these lines, the House Republicans have just passed a minimum wage increase from $5.15 per hour (poverty pay at $10,500 per year) to $7.15 per hour. But in their largesse, the Republicans coupled this raise with elimination of the estate tax. That means that by giving these poor people a measly $2.00 per hour raise, the richest Americans will get a tax break of $1 Trillion over the next ten years. It's estimated that the Bush family will be able to dodge $6.2 Million in estate taxes during that period while the Cheneys could possibly avoid up to $61 Million. What really angers me, and it should anger most Americans, is the fact that the Republicans were heard bragging about this coup on the House floor. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at this turn of events as these immoral elitists have been robbing from the poor and giving to the rich for a long time now.

I have claimed again and again that this economy is heading towards a typical third world economy. That is an economy where the rich and super rich will be exploiting the nation's riches while the rest of us peons will be working for low paying poverty wages at jobs serving these elitists. The above figures show that we are well on the way in that downward spiral that will make this scenario a reality. I hope it's plain to you as it's plain to me, that this has been the goal of the Republicans and the corporatists since the Regan years. What has happened is that there has been a systematic attack on the poor and middle classes of this country for the purpose of building up the wealth of the wealthy elite. This attack has accelerated dramatically since Bush has taken office as these corporatists and shills for the wealthy are in control of the Congress, the Administration and a good percentage of the Judicial System. Your government, which is supposed to be "of the people", is now "of the Haves and Have Mores".

So let's look at the bottom line of this death spiral into poverty during the "Imperial Presidency" of George W.:

o    Number of Americans Now Living in Poverty (12.7 %) -            37 Million
o    Increase Under Bush -                                       5.4 Million
o    Number of Americans Without Health Care -                47 Million
o    Number of Americans Who Have Had to Turn to Food Banks and Food
Stamps For Meals in 2005 -                             25 Million
o    Rank of US Poverty Among Developed Nations -                We're # 1
o    The Number of US Billionaires -                       269 - We're # 1

Another fact: Most of These Poverty Stricken Americans Have Jobs, Many Have two or more!

"You work three jobs? .... Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that." --G. W. Bush to a divorced mother of three, Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005

Now I ask you, is this the American Dream that you grew up believing in? Have we and our forefathers sacrificed and died to make the American Dream a reality, only to be forced into poverty and to be beholden to the rich and super rich of this country for the "trickle down" economic opportunity to be of service to them and the opportunity for our children to become cannon fodder in their economic expansionist wars? I didn't expect my children and grandchildren to be worse off economically than I was and have fewer opportunities than I did. But this is a reality for them if these people are allowed to continue to destroy our way of life.

The Republican Leadership in the House has again stated just recently that there goal is to "privatize Social Security". If they accomplish this, not only will we be driven into poverty, but we Americans will no longer have a safety net to sustain us in our later years. This whole litany is reminiscent of the days before FDR and the New Deal when the Robber Barons exploited the American worker and America's abundant resources to amass great fortunes while most of the American families scratched out a day to day living and died young and penniless.

This isn't my idea of the American Dream. We must get back to the true moral values of the Democratic Party that were established under the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society. The Party must work continuously for "the common good" and not to just enrich the elitists, the corporatists and their shills in the government. In other words, it's time for the Democrats to get back to our populist and progressive roots.
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