To: Raymond Duray who wrote (1715 ) 11/28/2003 10:28:57 AM From: Lizzie Tudor Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 90947 yes he did. TJ has openly questioned the Iraq decisions on CNBC so it isn't like he has never criticized the Bush admin. When we first went into Iraq, TJ said he did not support it on a CNBC interview, but at that time he did say that he supported the Bush economic agenda. That was before a lot of this recent out of control pork spending (energy, medicare) But this time it had to do with the budget deficit and what he considers to be a fiscal crisis of sorts. Republicans use an argument that "deficit as a percent of GDP" is ok, based on wartimes of the past (of course those were REAL wars not occupations rooted in economic looting).. anyway the problem is that GDP, as we learned last week as a metric needs to be recalibrated for globalization and is currently overstating US economy actuals, by at least half I'd say. The 4% GDP we had in the Clinton years was much, much more robust than this 8%. I don't know what goes into GDP figures... obviously we have corporate profits through the roof but not much else is through the roof in the US economy. Corporate profits sure aren't going to get us out of this mess, corporations pay very little in the way of the costs of government (especially with this gang of thieves). So with reworking the realities of globalization and individual income tax revenues going forward, tax rolls are likely much lower than estimates and spending is out of control, that is his point. He sees a 30% dollar decline, I'm not sure against which currency though. That seems a little high to me so it could be I'm missing the context. Many economists are expecting a 20% decline though.