Disaster Planning

Cynthia Tucker and Molly Ivins, both on the WFC site, have columns today focusing on what I see as the key issue of the day, the faltering, if not moribund, economy. Molly focuses on the Repug Tax Cuts:

OK, bad news. So, what did happen to all that money from tax cuts that was supposed to go into investment? It didn't go into higher wages — that's the factor that accounts for the generally dismal public perception of this economy. People don't see their income going up. Well, shareholders got more. Executives continued to get staggering pay packages. The increases range from obscene to excessive. I'll say this for America's corporate executives, they certainly weren't cowed by the Enron, Tyco, etc., scandals. There were a lot of stock buy-backs and acquisitions, but not much investment that creates jobs.

Well, I'm sorry it didn't work out the way the Republicans thought it would — that's why many argued against such cuts in the first place. The question now is, so why do it again? Why give the oil industry more tax breaks? Why do they keep doing it? Is it ideology, or is it stupidity?

while Cynthia hits the economy (and both parties) in general:

You'd think Congress would be working hard to ease the burdens of average working folks — police officers, plumbers, paralegals. You'd expect Washington politicians would have devoted the past few years to helping parents who are still working to pay for their prescriptions, to demanding more energy efficiency in automobiles and household appliances, to funding more college aid for working-class students.

The GOP, of course, has done nothing of the sort. As lackeys of the big-business, wealthy-investor class (or charter members of it), congressional Republicans have done everything in their power to make the lives of working folks worse. They've resisted an increase in the minimum wage; they've squeezed Medicaid; they've championed tax cuts for the richest Americans and a plan to make Social Security checks less reliable.

But the Democrats have done little better. Earlier this year, they joined with Republicans in service to the big banks, passing a bankruptcy bill that forgives less debt and makes it harder for folks struggling with big bills to dig themselves out of debt.