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June 2, 2002

Economy sinking

Georgie's game of Let's Pretend headed for stern reality check

As Bush Incorporated and his cronies in the Fortune 500 continue to plunder the wealth of the American people, the economy for the rest of us continues to deteriorate.

According to a CBS Marketwatch report, "The number of workers collecting state benefits rose to 3.9 million in the week ending May 18, the highest level since Jan. 15, 1983." We have become accustomed to describing conditions under Bush II as the worst since the days of Bush I, now George W. has driven us back to unemployment conditions worse than anything since the early days of Reagan's attack on the working people of America.

An MSNBC report says that the dollar has dropped in value about 9% against both the Yen and the Euro since January. The decline "has raised alarm bells among some economists" the article says, but in the subhead it has already said that "some say it's a minor blip and will soon disappear."

So the story is "balanced," right? The good, and the bad. Only the balance is reality against unreality and it is getting increasingly hard to pretend that the utter abandonment of fiscal responsibility by the Bush administration is not going to have some effect. Republicans know well that there is no free lunch. Someone will have to pay the piper. You can pay off congressmen to vote for your tax bills and pretend 1 and 1 makes 4. You can get the media to bolster your lies and assure the people that nothing is wrong until the crooks get out the back door and into their getaway cars. But even God can't make 1 and 1 make 4.

So the economic pendulum is going to swing, and when it does the biggest army in the world ain't going to swing it back. Maybe Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney believe they can force Europe and Japan to capitulate under military threat. But this may be one problem that does not avail of a military solution.