With the country already fiscally ill now comes recognition of bush's poison pill…

posted by Bill Arnett @ 11:15 AM Permalink

…and why it has taken so long for someone to actually introduce in the MSM the reality of the fiscal poison pill bush is leaving as his legacy for the American economy utterly confounds me. I have been saying for years now that we won't find out to worst of the damage bush has done to America until long after he leaves office.

It could not be plainer to me that this country is broke and that bush deliberately has done as much as he possibly can to make certain that America is broke, and not for altruistic motives, patriotism, or to protect America from the 'terrists' that are a phony construct of his own making to justify illegal wars, American imperialism, and American hegemony.

I believe he has long seen the writing on the wall insofar as the Democratic Party's coming rout of the GOP this November and is leaving this disaster for the Democratic president that will be elected and will face the nightmare bush will leave behind. It will take years to even start to cure the economic ills coming our way and in the coming disaster people will have a natural tendency to blame the party in charge, not the a$$hole who was directly responsible for the problem.

Paul Krugman wrote an excellent column on this subject today and is just about the only economist, apparently, that realizes this or at least has the guts to point this out.

From his article titled "Fiscal Poison Pill:

A poison pill, in corporate jargon, is a financial arrangement designed to protect current management by crippling the company if someone else takes over.

As I read the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center’s analysis of the presidential candidates’ tax proposals, I realized that the tax cuts enacted by the Bush administration are, in effect, a fiscal poison pill aimed at future administrations.[…]

Exhibit A of the poison pill in action is the sad case of John McCain, part of whose lingering image as a maverick rests on his early opposition to the Bush tax cuts, which he declared excessive and too tilted toward the rich.

Since then the budget surpluses of the Clinton years have given way to persistent deficits, and income inequality has risen to new heights, vindicating his opposition.

But instead of pointing this out, Mr. McCain now promises to make those tax cuts permanent — and proposes further cuts that are, if anything, tilted even more toward the wealthy.[…]

Barack Obama’s tax plan is more responsible than Mr. McCain’s: relative to current policy, the Tax Policy Center estimates, the Obama plan would raise revenue by $700 billion over the next decade, compared with a $600 billion loss for Mr. McCain.[…]

The problem, I believe, is that even Democrats have bought into the underlying premise of the Bush years — that the best thing you can do for American families, or at least the only thing that can win their votes, is to give them a tax break.[…]

Anyway, back to my main theme: looking at the tax proposals of the two presidential candidates, it’s remarkable and disheartening to see how effective President Bush’s fiscal poison pill has been in restricting the terms of debate.

Progressives, in particular, have to hope that Mr. Obama will be more willing to challenge the Bush legacy in office than he has been in the campaign.

It will take a heroic effort on the part of President Obama to find a path to lead America out of the financial quicksand into which bush has sunk the country.

And, as I said above, people will tend to blame the Democratic Party as their suffering grows much, much worse before there is any chance for it to get better, a fact that will redound in favor of the Republicans, who are truly to blame for this mess, in the 2012 elections.

And Republicans like bush/cheney claim to be patriots. BS.

Labels: Barrack Obama, bush hypocrisy, bush war doctrine, Economy, Fiscal irresponsibility, hypocrisy, liars, MSM