Sunday, August 14, 2005

Recommended Reading

In today's LA Times there are two interesting stories about Bush in Iraq in the section they call Current. One about Bush and the Iraqi constitution and one about Bush's economic vision for Iraq. Both are interesting reads however I have a question on my birthday: Where is Bush's economic vision for the United States?

As I posted earlier, in 1999 average price for gas was $.99 per gallon(which we were complaining about then) now in Los Angeles it's $2.70 per gallon (which we are still complaining about) I haven't heard Bush once say he has a plan to ease gas prices for people. I understand that other countries pay more but that is something they should take up with their government. The energy plan Bush signed does nothing to help the people everyone says Bush relates to and that's the common people.

Another thing is unemployment. With a lot of jobs going overseas unemployment is holding at around 5-6% last I checked. Has anyone heard Bush say anything about this? What is he doing to help people get jobs? I haven't.

Another things as well is security. We've had our civil rights slowly eroded with the invasion of privacy act (patriot act) and still despite that Bush is no closer at stopping attacks then he was prior to 9/11. Any type of attack can happen at any time people no matter how tough the security is. Ask Israel.

The only thing that has happened is Halliburton is making millions, the oil companies are making millions and the middle class are becomming the lower class quicker every day.

That needs to change and it will once Bush is out of office and the Dems take over. We've seen what happened with 8 years of republican rule and a change needs to be done.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Another thing is unemployment. With a lot of jobs going overseas unemployment is holding at around 5-6% last I checked. Has anyone heard Bush say anything about this? What is he doing to help people get jobs?"

The job of the president of the United States of America is commander in chief of the armed forces. This is expressly written in the constitution. The primary function of the federal government is defense and security of the nation. The president is not king so not everything that is going on in the country should be credited or blamed on him. Blaming Bush on unemployment is like blaming the fire department about crime in the city.

State, county, and local governments are meant to be more centered around individual needs (as it should be IMHO). Boy, where is John F. Kennedy when we need him?

Erik said...

Robert Robert Robert you may have a selective memory but you may remember when Bill Clinton was president and he was blamed for everything. He wanted to go after Osama Bin Ladin and those on the right lambasted him. Wonder if Presideninton was allowed to continue if that might have prevented 9/11 from happening. Also Robert if you go to media matters you can see that the right is also blaming President Clinton for 9/11. President Clinton get blamed for everything but we can't blame Bush for the current problems in the U.S.?? Wish I knew what country you live in cause we have the right to disagree and blame leaders in the United States.

Anonymous said...

Erik, Erik, Erik, no selective memory here. We weren't talking about Clinton. I'm not saying he wasn't incorrectly blamed, I'm just saying he's not the current president and not the individual you were blaming for unemployment. When you mention "the right is also blaming President Clinton for 9/11", does that mean it's okay for the left to reciprocate? If what the right is doing is so wrong, why is it okay for you do the very thing you are criticizing them about?

"Wish I knew what country you live in cause we have the right to disagree and blame leaders in the United States."

I only mentioned it was inappropriate to criticize the president for something that was not his job. I have my own personal criticisms of Bush but this is your place.

Erik said...

The president is responsible for making america for lack of a better term work. Unemployment under President Clinton was around 4% now it's higher. What he AND congress could do for americans to keep jobs is fine employers who ship their jobs overseas. That would make a great statement that Bush is for the people. But we know that will happen when hell freezes over.

Anonymous said...

Let's pretend the federal government is responsible for Americans working. The repurcussions of penalizing companies hiring non-American workers would be huge.

-It would encourage companies to move their headquarters out of the U.S., thus destroying even more jobs.

-Thanks to the Internet, the global market is here to stay. America is a free enterprise system. We demand to be able to buy goods and services based on best performance for the price basis. You did this yourself Erik when you bought a Nissan automobile. You obviously chose that car because it offered the best "bang for the buck" in your mind. Shouldn't a company have the same freedom of choice when it comes to hiring?

-We encourage democracy and capitalism around the world. The Soviet Union was an example of an attempt at a closed system and look what happened to them.

5-6% unemployment isn't really that bad (yes, it could be better). It was only better than that during a portion of Clinton's presidency (the dot com boom).

What may be the best solution is to do something similar as in the automobile industry. Set up tariffs. Tariffs actually encouraged companies like Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Mercedes, and BMW to build plants in the U.S. Perhaps a trade agreement pertaining to labor could be set up for any country that wants to offer its labor services.

Erik said...

Robert that idea would help I think. But problem is it's companies like Dell and other similar firms that are also outsourcing.