Bush (Tax Cut, Recession) 02/2001

FACT: Republican Greenspan testified that the "Tax Stimulus" argument to stimulate the economy is nonsense. Alan Greenspan tells the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee that tax cuts will be no help in staving off a recession. "In other words, if a recession is going to happen -- and I must say to you, it's not happened yet -- it's very unlikely to be affected one way or the other by what tax policy is going to be."

COMMENT: The reason the tax cut will have no effect on the recession is because it largely does not take effect for several years. Even then, the overwhelming bulk of the cut will go to the wealthiest Americans. In fact, the poorest members of our nation will receive NO tax releif since they currently pay only payroll taxes. (Bush was well aware of this when he proposed cutting only income taxes, death taxes and capital gains taxes, but not payroll taxes) From a fiscal stimulus perspective, this is useless, since these people already spend all the money that they want. A further influx to them will NOT increase their personal consumption. It will merely inflate their coffers, a useless action to the economy at large as a stimulus. In reality, the actual effect will be a negative impact on the economy since these trillions of dollars that will now be stashed away in the vaults of the super-wealthy would otherwise have gone into various programs such as education and other investments in the future of our nation and its economy. Of course the people who really need these funds are SOL and so is America.

Clinton (Employment, Prosperity)

FACT: During Clinton's stay in the White House, over 23 million jobs were created and this country experienced a profound period of peace and prosperity. So far, in the Bush administration, over 2 million jobs have been lost. We are in a non-declared perma-war. The stock markets have gotten crushed. Enron and their like are crashing from corruption, destroying an untold number of family's in their wakes all while the executives leave with hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation.