Take Me To Post Comment Form Greetings Y'all,

The state of the economy and what to do about it will probably top a long list of issues of concern to voters.That this is so is really no surprise because although citizens are affected by many,many issues,everyone seems to be affected by the state of the economy in a very direct way.The war, the environment,the price of gas touch us all and all are very painful and very serious ,but all are trumped by the very mundane fear of losing a job and a livlihood.

The traditional wisdom has been that since the Republican Party has traditionally been more attuned to business concerns that Republicans have the better view about what to do with the economy,especially a faltering economy.It is a reasonable assumption given the some of the excesses of big labor and its close association with the Democratic Party.But time and tide moves on.

The Republican Party ,at least as it is presently constituted, is reponsible for much of the mess we find ourselves in right now.Until fairly recently, a Republican president and a Republican dominated Congress have permitted the subprime mortgage disaster to unfold,largely as the result of deregulation and an unquestioning faith in the virtues of laissez faire---something even Adam Smith would question,overturning banking regulations in place since the Great Depression and allowing the fox to run the henhouse.

Our trade deficit with China continues to soar even after the braintrust at the Commerce Department made a special trip to China essentially to do the kowtow.The Chinese promise to play nice ,and we continue to lose manufacturing jobs.They sell us toxic,defective and dangerous goods and Commerce,the FDA,The Department of Agriculture just roll over.

NAFTA began with Clinton and so some of the blame rests on Clinton ,but some of the faith placed in that agreement may be excused because the idea was fairly new and we did not know then the trade surplus we ran with Mexico would soon turn into a yawning trade deficit.Remember Perot and all of that noise about the loud sucking sound,the sound of jobs being sucked from the American economy?

At present there can be no doubt that NAFTA was a very bad idea ,indeed,and yet we now have entered into CAFTA.We continue to import poverty in the form of millions of unskilled workers from Mexico and all of Latin America while we continue to export our prosperity.We are governed by fervent free traders despite the fact that what is described as free trade is free trade only as far as the US is concerned.Our trading partners are not burdened by such quaint notions.

Immigration has been out of control for quite some time now ,so all of the blame cannot be placed on the Bush Administration.Unfortunately,however, the problem has gotten much worse under his watch.Remember all of the hand shaking and abrazos with Vicente Fox, a man wags described as the president of Mexico and the US? We now have Calderon a man who seems to believe that the president of Mexico is also resposible for dictating US policy.The McCain/Kennedy "comprensive" immigration plan was essentially yet another ammnesty scheme and a policy favored by the open borders crowd at the Wall Street Journal and the US Chamber of Commerce--- must have that cheap labor, labor largely subsidized by the US taypayer in the form of the huge social costs that such "cheap" labor really exacts.

Tax cuts? Sounds like a good idea--- more money spent in reinvestment and job creation.The only problem is that much of the money has been invested overseas and the benefits ascribed to trickle down theory are not trickling down.So the rich get richer and the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow.Since the government has seen no need to curtail spending, the money no longer raised by taxes is borrowed largely from foreign investors and foreign governments at the same time that we are spending trillions to underwrite interminable wars in the Middle East and mortgaging our future.Incidentally, no other administration Democrat or Republican has seen fit to cut taxes during war time. Whatever happened to war bonds anyway?

If you like tainted meat and suspect food and drugs,thank W. We now have a voluntary inspection system---we don't need no stinking badges!

A lot of people see Obama as a threat to the economy ,but could he do worse? I'm afraid McCain will continue some of the failed policies of the Bush Administration,policies that we know have failed. Are we gambling that much if we seek change?

Musca