What an excellent, nontraditional, IMPORTANT campaign issue. The Dean campaign should take the lead in showing the effects of two decades of fiscal irresponsibility (read: uncalled for tax cuts) has done, and will do, to state and local budgets and our national infrastructure. Even if it's not a 'winner', it must be portrayed as the crisis that it truly is.
Joe Mariani | Email | Homepage | 02.08.03 - 10:34 pm | #

Anyone know how much site traffic this blog is getting recently?
me | Email | Homepage | 02.09.03 - 3:00 am | #

Dean has hit on a very important topic. Here in Maryland we are now living under our first Republican governor since Spiro Agnew left office to assume the Vice Presidency under President Nixon. In his first state of the state address, Republican governor Ehrlich did not mention one word about our $1 billion budget shortfall or how he proposes to close it. He did have a lot of words about social issues no one cares about except rabid partisans on either side of the aisle. Dean was 100% correct when he said that Republicans are intellectually dishonest.
CB | Email | Homepage | 02.09.03 - 6:51 am | #

This is absolutely true. Reagan used to say the "guvament" was the bloated cow, but it was a very clever strategy...the easy solution. And now the ultimate: Pres. Junior with his meaningless, actually destructive $300 cut, which wasn't a cut but a loan and cuts for millionaires. (I read where one economic figure is in the worst decline since Hoover.)

Here in NY, the budget is all you hear about, other than the Bush war. Pataki, the vice-hero-in-chief (after Giuliani) of 9/11, has given the finger to Mayor Bloomberg about closing a huge budget gap. No reinstallation of a commuter tax on suburban folk who make their livings (and fortunes) in NY, any pay nothing for the sewers they use, the roads they get driven on, or nothing extra for the mass transit than the residents of NYC do.

In NJ, Gov. McGreevey is getting destroyed by the right wing for trying desperately to balance a budget without adding a tax. (At least Bloomberg is being given the option of allowing New Yorkers to pay more at bridges and tunnels within the city).

Finally, in my job, I deal extensively with the LA school system and they are desperate, dealing with state mandated cuts. They call me asking for free books...No money to buy anything to educate 1.7 million students. My budget has been cut and I can't send anything to them.

I guess this is real trickle down economics, kind of a reverse morphine drip. (Maybe Dr. Dean can come up with a better metaphor).
DaveB | Email | Homepage | 02.09.03 - 9:40 am | #

On the left...link to Road to the White House from last week
Seth | Email | Homepage | 02.09.03 - 11:21 am | #

Under the bush plan, your federal taxes go down slightly...but your state taxes go up more!!
Net: Tax INCREASE...
Bush=ass!
Seth | Email | Homepage | 02.09.03 - 11:23 am | #

you know, i just completed my taxes for the year and i must say this... WHAT TAX CUT? as a married couple, we received a $600 check. my bi-weekly paycheck increased by a "whopping" 14 dollars. yes, i said fourteen. when we filed our taxes this year, we noticed the standard deduction for married couples in our tax bracket had actually DECREASED by over two thousand dollars!

you do that math on that one and then tell me where my tax cut is...

meanwhile, texas is experiencing our biggest budget deficit in history. wanna know what's in store for the nation? just look at my home state. special ed in texas is practically unfunded (TX-MHMR [google it] is fighting for their life right now), there isn't any money to pay for teacher salary increases, there isn't money to fix our dilapidated schools (many of our classrooms have broken windows, bad lights, leaks in the ceilings...), and the state has cut funding to our public universities.

the university thing hits the middle and lower class particularly hard. my husband pays about $2K per semester at UTA. for the next three semesters, our cost will go up $500 per semester. by the end of that, his tuition price will have increased from $2000 to $3500 per semester. thanks, george!

i could go on and on but i'll spare you the sunday headache. my point is that bush's scorched earth policies have left a mess here in texas, and now he's taking it nationwide.
anna | Email | Homepage | 02.09.03 - 5:39 pm | #

On the issue of fiscal policy, I volunteer to be a case study. I have never in my life seen this mysterious "300 dollar check", and on top of that, I have to PAY the IRS this year. They're not payin' me... where's my damn tax cut?

I'd like to hear some discussion about this at the campaign level. Personally, giving the government an extra thousand bucks every year is certainly NOT the highlight of my life. We need to get the tax system figured out in this country, so nobody gets anything back and nobody has to pay extra but they collect as much as they need anyway. That doesn't fully explain per child deductions, mortage deductions, and all that other stuff, but that's why I'd like to hear some discussion of it.
Ken | Email | Homepage | 02.09.03 - 7:29 pm | #

agreed, the tax code makes no sense. What's the point of a TAX-DeDUCTIBLE charitable contribution. I thought the idea was it was CHARITY!? hello? And credits, deductions, etc etc etc. Just do away with it all, forget the filing nonsense, if it's on my paycheck and W-2's why do I have to fill out forms to tell the govt how much they took out? makes no sense.

Tim Cairl | Email | Homepage | 02.10.03 - 9:27 am | #

and if anyone else cares to know how underfunded education is in texas, go read this blog.
a snippet from today's entry:

"Two weeks ago today, (our classroom heater) stopped working. Our maintenance people reported it to the headquarters downtown, and were basically told that the prospect of us receiving a new motor [that's what's broken] this school year was remote. I mean, please! These are little children we're talking about, trying to learn, trying to study, trying to take the retarded f*cking TAKS test, and they're forced to sit in a room that is as cold as it is outside all day long. It's going to be, what, 38 for a high today? We can pay the superintendent half a million dollars a year, but we can't buy a stupid motor so that my students don't freeze?"


anna | Email | Homepage | 02.10.03 - 11:56 am | #

I got a call from a very soft-spoken community activist from of all places, Arlington, TX. He contritely asked for some free materials that he could use to educate poor women in health matters of concern to raising families.

I did this time have something to offer him, in Spanish, and he was beyond grateful. The conversation led me to believe that there was nothing available in educational or social services resources in the town that GWBush fleeced to build his baseball stadium and make his "fortune."

Can it get any worse? The most inept, corrupt, incompetent "president" about to take us into the most dangerous war without thought or reason.

Helen Thomas is right: This is the worst president ever.

Dig deep and donate to Dr. Dean. You'll get a personally signed letter, even if you contribute $25.00. Get creative. Start chain e-mails soliciting small contributions from your contacts. Let's share some more thoughts.
DaveB | Email | Homepage | 02.11.03 - 12:22 am | #