Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Bush Bashing Day 2 : The Domestic Front

In order to understand President Bush's domestic policy it's helpful to know this simple truism.

Conservatives believe that people making, say, $15,000 or $20,000 have life a little too easy. Conservatives also believe that people making say $120,000 or $150,000 have life a little too hard (and don't get them started on the suffering of people making over $500,000).

That's not how I look at it personally (frankly my heart goes out to anybody trying to raise as family on $15,000 a year), but it does explain a lot of President Bush's economic policy.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to make life harder on the people making over $120,000 a year. I have nothing against them, and in fact applaud their accomplishments. I am a proud capitalist. But I think that a Democratic government should focus on protecting and helping those who don't have a lot. The wealthy can, more or less, take care of themselves (as we saw in our little review of President Bush's life story yesterday).

That sad thing is that a single minded focus on making life easier for the wealthy and harder for the working poor is, in the long run, not a solid way to build a society. What's that old line about a chain being only as strong as it's weakest links? President Bush's economic policies are building an America with a few really nice looking links and a lot of busted ones.

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