Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

The Bush tax increase on all Americans

The National Debt increases an average of $1.54 billion per day; your individual share is $30,531 (that’s for every man, woman and child in America). When Bush took office in January 2002 the national debt was $5.7 trillion; now it totals $9.3 trillion – a 63-percent increase.

When Bush took office:

• One US dollar would buy 1.13 euros but now only buys 0.64 – a 43-percent decline.

• The national average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.09 and now stands at $3.04.

• Consumer debt stood at $1.9 trillion and now stands at $2.5 trillion – a 36-percent increase.

College tuition fees and personal debt of students after graduation have soared. In fact, the overall increase in personal debt in the US has outpaced the increase in average personal income.

Bush has dramatically increased government spending and at the same time cut certain tax rates, which mostly benefit the ultra-rich. And the rich are the only economic class which has had any real increase in wealth during his presidency. The middle- and lower-classes’ income have been flat or lost ground.

About 40 percent of the tax benefits from Bush’s 2001 and 2003 cuts went to the top one percent of earners (incomes of $850,000 and above). The top one percent has dramatically increased its total share of pre-tax earnings.

In 1980, the top one percent took home about eight percent of total earnings in the US; now, they take home 16 percent while paying a smaller share of the tax burden. Warren Buffet recently complained that he pays a lower overall tax rate as a percentage of income than his secretary.

Not counting the cost of the Iraq War, Bush has ballooned government spending – and if you add in the long-term cost of the war (such as the medical care for our veterans), we will be paying for his policies for generations to come.

The increase in prices and debt, and the decline of the dollar, are the direct effects of modern Republican economic policies. Republicans have no right to claim to be fiscally conservative.

Jon Monday

 

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