The public is plainly skeptical about the medicine this administration keeps prescribing. The most stunning evidence of these doubts is found in last week's NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll. Only 29 percent said they agreed with the statement that tax cuts are the best way to increase economic growth and create jobs, while 64 percent said there are better ways to improve the economy.
This is so misleading. He makes it sound like only 29% favor a tax cut. Maybe some people want the tax cut because they think the current code redistributes wealth too much. Maybe others want a tax cut so they can afford to eat out once in a while. Broder never addresses whether people are for the tax cut, only whether people think it helps the economy.
More than six out of 10 of those surveyed said they agreed that Bush's economic policy relies too heavily on tax cuts and not enough on direct job creation, that it benefits the wealthy more than average Americans and that it will increase the federal budget deficit -- which it surely will.
What in the world is direct job creation? It sounds like people want to see more jobs created, but they would hate to see someone getting rich creating those jobs. Didn't the Russians try this once? I don't remember how that turned out.
Meanwhile, out in the real world, the hard choices that Washington evades are being made by state legislatures and governors. My travels took me to Oregon and Indiana in recent days, and the fiscal situation in both states is grim. Indiana officials say they have lost more manufacturing jobs in the past two years than any other state. Unemployment in Oregon is at 8 percent, and tax revenue continues to fall short of even the downward-revised estimates. . . Nor are these states unique. . . . Almost eight out of 10 say their states will not be able to afford any increase in aid to hard-pressed local governments. Nearly all foresee cuts in social services, and half think it is at least somewhat likely that education, their top priority, will also feel the budgetary ax.
It's always education isn't it? We feed the education monster in every election year and the promises persist of better quality and more learning. Then the tests results appear and the kids aren't any smarter. For fun, why don't we cut education every year and track if the kids get any dumber?
People in states such as Oregon and Indiana are being battered by daily television bulletins and newspaper headlines reporting that the governments closest to them are being forced to take actions that threaten their quality of life.
Right. My quality life is based directly on how much money my local government can take away from me and spend on what they want. When I spend the money myself, I am always miserable.
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