Obama Shows His Punch

[JimGinPA]

Yesterday in Raleigh, North Carolina, Barack Obama opened the general election fight, taking the gloves off against the "tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for too long," and offering a clear challenge to the Bush-McCain economic misrule. In Washington before the National Federation of Independent Business, McCain counterpunched, suggesting the choice was between low taxes and "the largest tax increase since World War II."

This argument will be the big kahuna in this election. Despite ritual boosterism, soothing rhetoric and quiet prayers by Wall Street pundits, the economy is foul and likely to get much worse. We've lost jobs for five months in a row. Gas, food, health care costs are soaring. For workers, the mess is worse than the stagflation of the 1970s. Then growth was stagnant, while prices and wages were spiraling up. Now we've got stagflation squared -- with growth and wages stagnant, prices on basics soaring, while the value of homes, the largest investment Americans have, is plummeting.

-snip-

Bush and Republicans in Congress have been resisting any new stimulus measures, arguing that the $600 rebate checks going out in the stimulus package are just kicking in, and that things will get better.

Not likely. Gas prices will chew up the rebates -- while racking up rising trade deficits. And beginning in July, states and localities will be laying off teachers and police, deferring construction projects as they struggle with rising deficits. And the banks staggered by the collapse of the financial bubble are now about to face the rising credit card, auto loan and mortgage defaults that come with an economic downturn.

Why are we in this mess? Obama put the blame for this directly on the Bush-McCain economic strategy. The current crisis, he argued, wasn't simply "some accident of history," or "an inevitable part of a business cycle." It was the "logical conclusion" of a "worn dogma" that has failed this country.

More at link

http://www.alternet.org/election08/87801/

[elocs]

1. Anyone who believes that $600 checks will stimulate the economy

needs to be seriously drug tested. Mine came and went to take care of everyday bills as well as to clean up the cost of last winter's heating bill.