Scapegoats of the Week
Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, left, and economic adviser Larry Lindsey resigned today at the request of the Bush regime.
The Bush regime fired Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and economic adviser Larry Lindsey today to make it look like George W. gives a shit about the failing economy.
The ouster of O'Neill and Lindsey comes on the same day that the Labor Department announced that last month's unemployment rate was 6 percent, matching an eight-year high that also was seen in April.
The Associated Press reported that "Bush advisers have been increasingly worried that a lagging economy could hamper the president's re-election prospects." Apparently the Bush regime realizes that it cannot blame "the events of Sept. 11th" for everything indefinitely.
The departure of O'Neill and Lindsey is no loss, but their ouster is not likely to dramatically improve the state of the economy any more than the ouster of Dick Gephardt is going to dramatically improve the leadership of the Democratic Party.
An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office requested by Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio projects federal budget deficits of $2.9 trillion through 2012 if government spending continues to increase at the same rate that it has and if the Bush tax cuts, set to expire after 10 years, are extended. (See Reuters story.)
"Too many people around here are fooling themselves that we don't have a federal budget crisis," Voinovich said in a news conference. "The budget accounting the federal government uses is so misleading it would make an Enron accountant blush."
Taxpayers' money that could go toward social programs and eventually help the economy -- Americans can't help build the economy when their basic needs are going unmet -- instead is going to corporate handouts and to the military.
A protracted (and, might I add, unnecessary) Bush war in Iraq could end up costing almost $2 trillion, according to the results of a study reported by the Associated Press. The AP reported, "Economic ripples of war with Iraq are likely to spread beyond budgetary costs, with the prospect of raising the cost of imported oil, slowing productivity growth and possibly triggering a recession, the [study] said."
Misguided tax cuts and rampant military spending that cause huge budget deficits are the Bush regime's economic agenda, the agenda which Bush II adopted from Bush I and which Bush I adopted from Ronald Reagan. The failing economy can't be pinned on O'Neill and Lindsey, who were only two of many stupid white male players.
"Firing its economic team is an overdue admission by the Bush administration that its economic policies have failed," Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota said today in a written statement. "However, the fundamental problem is that this administration has no comprehensive plan to get the economy back on track."
As Michael Dukakis told George Bush the First, a fish rots from the head down.
12:42:05 PM 
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