Show-Me State of Mind for May 7th, 2008

We Need A Change to Save Economy
In 2001, newly elected President George W. Bush and a Congress chock-full of his staunchest allies inherited a $127 billion federal budget surplus, low unemployment, and $1.25 a gallon gas. Over the next five years, the bigwigs in Washington enacted an agenda that they said would strengthen our economy, bolster our national security, and balance the budget.
Unfortunately, for most Americans, it hasn't worked out that way. First of all, instead of surpluses, the Bush administration has run a deficit every single year since 2001, totaling $1.7 trillion through 2007. Now, maybe we wouldn't be so worried about the fact that the government will pay $244 billion in interest payments on the national debt this year if the economy were in better shape. But the middle-class squeeze is only getting worse.
Bush told us again and again that his economic policies would stimulate the economy and put money back into the hands of middle-class taxpayers. Instead, we are struggling through our second recession in 7 years, wages are stagnating, 1.6 million more Americans are unemployed and real household income has declined. Employers have announced almost 300,000 jobs to be eliminated in the first four months of 2008. And that stimulus check you're about to get? It won't even cover rising health care premiums, increased food costs, and skyrocketing gas prices.
Of course, not everyone has suffered as a result of the Bush administration's policies. Oil companies and hedge fund managers, for example, are living large. ExxonMobil made over $40 billion in 2007 and many hedge fund managers are raking in more than $2 billion a year.
What do all these billionaires have in common? They all benefit from tax breaks and loopholes that Congress has refused to repeal and they all contribute generously to lawmakers in Washington. So how do some members of Congress plan to alleviate the middle-class squeeze? By extending the tax cuts for oil companies and billionaires, cutting health programs for children, and continuing to spend $720 million per day on the war in Iraq. Sounds to me like just more of the same.
I say we've tried it their way and their way isn't working. Isn't it time for a change?
Kay Barnes is a candidate for U.S. representative for Missouri's 6th Congressional District