no, my feeling is that Bush is a fan of trickle down economics which doesn't work. That is my primary concern on the economic front. Trickle down economics brought us the tax cuts which were very poorly conceived and delivered. Of course, being trickle down, there was no stimulative effect. Some of these tax cuts, I'm thinking of the dividend tax cut here, actually had a *detrimental* effect on growth, because they siphoned off money that might have gone to growth stock investing and redeployed it to non-job creating mature companies that pay dividends. So a double whammy there- no growth and removing resources that could have gone to growth companies. Meanwhile, the war rhetoric which caused many of our trading partners like Germany to hesitate when it came to spending. Things like Ari Fleicher overtly advocating assassination on National TV.. "it only takes one bullet"... stuff like this, along with the "axis of evil" which has all of asia up in arms, these things I do indeed blame Bush for. Did he think about what he was doing when he referred to Korea as an "axis of evil"... what was the payoff with that particular action... hmmm I can't think of one. Anyway fast forward ... the world is tense, Bush has spent all the treasury money on trickle down economics and the next thing you know, this offshoring trend takes hold. China has artificially low currency but we are in a vice grip to get them to change due to the US deficit!
Add all this together and this is not leadership the way I see it. I thought Clinton was a good president, I'd vote for him again (I much prefer him to Bush), but I also liked Reagan and I voted for Arnold in California. (I was out of the country when Bush I was president). So I am not really partisan I just feel that Bush's choices are not those of a clear thinking, mature leader. Little things like landing on that aircraft carrier to big things like saying "bring it on" to our military enemies ... this isn't acceptable to me, I am hoping for better. |
