Somewhere in this blog, I said that Bush might as well win in 2004, since this Presidential term is guaranteed to be a disaster.
\nHow right I was.<\/p>
\nEven the chief apologist for the Bushites, Alan Greenspan, perhaps mindful of his legacy, has FINALLY tut-tutted the gigantic deficit that this Presidency has created.
\nThe savings rate in the United States is now 0%. That’s right, 0. Just in time for the new bankruptcy law to go into effect, thus guaranteeing even less of a safety net for families suffering from lay-offs or unexpected medical expenses (more about this below).
\nHurricane Katrina is wreaking havoc with the oil refineries in the Gulf (of Mexico, not the Persian), thus guaranteeing 18% increases in heating oil and natural gas this winter, not to mention $3\/gallon gasoline.
\nKatrina may be only the beginning: NOAA is predicting twice the average number of hurricanes for the season, which doesn’t end until October.
\nBush’s popularity rating (if one can call it such) is now at 40% in the latest Harris poll. As noted on ThinkProgress.org, that compares to Nixon’s 39% in July 1993, when the Watergate scandal was reaching a head (the Senate Watergate Committee had convened in May).
\nHigh oil prices are a disaster in ways the press doesn’t even talk about:
\nbuilders and homeowners – roofing materials and driveways are made of oil-based products;
\nmunicipalities – think about gas guzzlers like school busses, police cars, snow plows, fire engines;
\nhospitals – they have utility costs like any other large facility, but what about petroleum-based plastics that are used for everything from disposable gloves to pacemakers?
\nMy gosh, we’ll be spending $10 for a box of Glad Wrap by the time this is done, never mind medical supplies – they might become the biggest line items on a hospital bill.
\nMeanwhile, the nut-cases in Congress are talking about making the repeal of the estate tax permanent while cutting aid to college students. A normally sensible man like John McCain and the predictably befuddled Ted Kennedy want to give amnesty to 11 million illegal aliens as “guestworkers”, plus invite in a few more. George Bush is trying to decide if we have reached enough of a crisis to release the country’s oil reserves, or maybe he and Karl Rove are working on his next attempt to “catapult the propaganda”.
\nI tell you, it’s enough to make even a strong woman weep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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