DO NOT sign this petition! MoveOn.org wants you to help Bush increase the National Debt so he can score some cheap political points!
January 27, 2008

 
Share

Please REGISTER to post comments or be notified by e-mail every time this Blog is updated! Firefox/IE7 users can use RSS for a browser link that lists the latest posts!

WRITERS WANTED – Keeping this blog current can be a bigger job than for just one person. “Mugsy’s Rap Sheet” is looking for VOLUNTEER guest writers to contribute to our blog to help make it worth visiting more than once a week. To contact us, please send an email to the address on our About Us page along with a sample and/or link to your writing skills.
– Mugsy

UPDATE: If you still aren’t convinced U.S. dependence on foreign investment isn’t a catastrophe waiting to happen, read this:

Chavez Urges Withdrawals From U.S. Banks.
——————–

I received the following email from MoveOn.org Saturday night:

A Progressive Economy

Democratic leaders will be meeting with President Bush this week to negotiate an emergency economic stimulus package, and they’re under pressure to accept the president’s priorities.

Bush’s proposal gives little or no help to people who make less than $40,000 a year, but those are the very folks who need help most–and who would be most likely to spend a little extra cash in their pockets to get the economy moving again.

This is a moment we could think big. We could spend on public infrastructure to create new jobs, or invest in new technology to make us more competitive and less dependent on oil in the long term. Or we could give even more Bush tax breaks to the people who need it the least.

Can you sign this petition and tell your representative to demand a progressive economic package?

President Bush and Congress’ near-sighted solution of handing every man, woman & child in America a LOAN CHECK that they will have to REPAY WITH INTEREST has got to be one of the most horrendous “solutions” one could imagine. Here is the reply I sent MoveOn:

I am appalled that MoveOn has chosen to to sponsor a petition *promoting* the idea of a “stimulus package” that involves INCREASING THE NATIONAL DEBT, BORROWING YET MORE MONEY FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES THAT WE WILL HAVE TO PAY BACK *WITH INTEREST*! That’s the short-sighted Republican answer to everything: write an IOU and let future generations worry about it.

The best “stimulus package” would be to demand oil companies increase refinery output (which they have deliberately reduced to artificially inflate the cost of fuel) and CUT GASOLINE PRICES BY $0.50 A GALLON (gasoline fell below $2/gal the week of the 2006 election. That’s not a coincidence and it proves they can cut gas prices when they want to).

The high price of gasoline is like a $1500 a year tax on every working class family in America. And higher fuel costs contribute to higher shipping and production costs as well, that directly affect the cost of the products we buy.

Bringing down the price of fuel would have THE most immediate and direct impact on the economy without incurring more debt. It would mean a substantial savings to every American, helping those who need the help most, without giving everyone a “loan check” they must eventually repay with interest.

MoveOn and the Democratic Congress should be ashamed of themselves for promoting such an irresponsible and DANGEROUS “solution”. Please reconsider your petition.

People don’t seem to understand Economics-101… when you’re running a deficit, that means you are spending more money than you take in in taxes. If you have no more money, where are they going to get all that lovely cash for their “stimulus package”? A: They must borrow it, or course! And that means you’re going to have to REPAY it… WITH INTEREST. Ever hear the phrase, “Don’t do me any favors”?

DO NOT SIGN MoveOn.org’s PETITION. Tell your friends not to sign MoveOn’s petition either. Instead, contact MoveOn.org and express your displeasure with them supporting a ridiculous “quick fix scheme” that could only of been concocted by a Republican that does nothing but improve George W. Bush’s short-term poll numbers at a cost of tens of millions of YOUR tax dollars! This country can ill-afford any more “tax breaks” that aren’t countered by either spending cuts, cuts in corporate welfare, or commensurate tax *increase* for the wealthy. And since no Democrat is going to advocate a tax “increase” in an election year… even on those who can most afford it… that third option isn’t going to happen. And no one has suggested any “spending cuts” to offset the cost of this “stimulus package”, so it will do one thing and one thing only: balloon the National Debt.

They might as well just cut a massive Billion dollar check to the oil companies because that’s where the money is going to go anyways.

Why is The National Debt such an important issue? Because every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar we aren’t spending here in the U.S.. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush together are responsible for nearly 8 of the 9 TRILLION dollars this country now owes its creditors (half owed to Americans that purchased bonds and half to foreign countries that loaned us the money).

Do the math: For simplicity sake, if we borrowed all that cash at an average of 5% interest, that’s $400 BILLION TAX DOLLARS PAID OUT IN INTEREST EVERY YEAR! Lost. Wasted. Down the drain. Used for nothing but to pay interest. Imagine what this country could do with an extra $400 BILLION dollars a year? Fully fund healthcare, invest in alternative energy research, hire an additional 8 million public school teachers, or SIX AND A HALF MILLION new police officers! By comparison, the Iraq war has cost the U.S. roughly $200 Billion dollars a year. So interest on the debt is equivalent to the cost of TWO IRAQ WARS EVERY YEAR… FOREVER! It’s fiscal irresponsibility at its highest, and it should NOT be encouraged!

And while MoveOn did inject SOME responsible suggestions of investing that money in “infrastructure”, that will neither produce the immediate economic stimulus this catastrophic Bush economy needs, nor would it help the plight of those who already have jobs and need some relief *now*… and still adds to a debt we can no longer afford to explode unchecked.

BORROWING STILL MORE MONEY IS NOT A SOLUTION! It is dangerous, reckless, irresponsible, and the only person it helps in the short term is George W. Bush and his cronies. Tell your friends NOT to sign the MoveOn.org petition if they receive it.

Share

January 27, 2008 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Politics

Leave a Reply