Today the Dow closed at 10609.66, a full 50 points lower than the day George W Bush took office (how's that market economics working out for you?). That means that in 8 years of Republican stewardship the economy has shown a net negative movement.
I wish I had more time to devote to this subject, but as a lowly medical school student I honestly don't know much about the economy, probably about as much as John McCain.
What I do know is the Bush administration, as well as his surrogate nominee John McCain have proposed that our tax money to fund Social Security should be placed in private markets. Some of the names mentioned for these holdings should sound familiar right about now; Lehmann Brothers and the no-longer-independent Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch.
Say we would have bet our Social Security future on the market in 2001 assuming that the stewardship of the Republicans would have led to larger gains in those investments. Remember a lot of their platform is based on larger tax breaks for the wealthy which leads to higher investment in the market and large returns. Those assumptions would have been wrong. According to the Center for American Progress, the Bush economic plan (the same one John McCain is pushing, "make the Bush tax cuts permanent", let Phil Gramm who created this mess continue his policies as he is McCain's top economic advisor to the campaign) has stifled the average familial income (PDF) and given large gains to the yacht riding wealthy of the country.
Again, I know next to nothing about the economy, but I can read a chart and seeing the Dow Jones head down down down is not a good sign. More of the Same????
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John McCain has been in the news quite a bit recently. His comments on the economy are the definition of irony, and the media has finally begun calling a spade a spade, and McCain's campaign press, well, bullshit. Not to mention the Palin soap opera/Law & Order episode.
Little noticed news item, McSame finally answered the ScienceDebate2008 presidential candidate questionnaire. Obama's answers here. On the energy question, McCain made a passing reference to wind, solar, geothermal, tide, and hydroelectric energy potential, without mentioning a serious effort to increase the use of these technologies. Seems like he was primarily concerned with explaining away all those votes he had cast against renewable energy. He mumbles something about "reforming" the tax credits for the industry (in repubspeak: remove all responsible regulation). Just more lip-service, no policy.
Then he rants about nuclear power. He proposes building 45 new reactors by 2030. Thats a lot of nuclear power plants folks. You want one in your backyard? I don't. And he completely whitewashes the reality of this option as well.
Nuclear power is a proven, domestic, zero-emission source of energy and it is time to recommit to advancing our use of nuclear energy.
"Zero-emission?"
Yucca Mountain, anyone? Was he even awake when his lobbyists/advisers were writing this tripe?
Under the previous topic "Climate Change," he plugged for 30 billion dollars over the next 15 years for the freakin' coal industry. "Clean coal" is still coal, my friend, euphamisims wont change the
fact. Filtered cigarretes will still kill you. And really? I'm no econimist, but $30 billion seems like a lot for an industry we should be moving away from anyway.
Read his other answers at your own peril.
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Bear Stearns back in March, if we hadn't we may have lost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, and who know's what else. Oh wait...
Brought to you by that economic genious Phil Gramm, who just happens to be the guy who will be in charge of our whole economy under John McCain. Chew on that one...
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