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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (533005)	1/30/2004 8:01:56 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Bush may lose by a landslide actually, but probably it will be close and come down to about five states. This time, a Kerry-Southerner or Kerry-Richards ticket could take several red states from Bush, including New Hampshire for sure, West Virginia, Arizona, Arkansas if Clark is the Veep and Florida. However it will be a fierce fight as Kerry will have to work full-time to fend off the phony slander and disinformation, plus a probable October Surprise, like saving Osama's capture for the week before the election. Kerry currently leads Bush in national polls and the more people get to know John the more they feel comfortable with him. John has real mojo. Bush is a chickenhawk. Kerry is also much smarter and more honest than Bush.

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (533005)	1/30/2004 8:11:05 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

BUSH'S ECONOMIC OPTIMISM BELIED BY DEFICITS, UNEMPLOYED Visiting New Hampshire yesterday, President Bush argued on behalf of making his tax cuts permanent, saying, "government has got plenty of money." But in Washington, the White House announced that the Medicare law signed six weeks ago would cost 35% more than indicated. White House officials have maintained the $134 billion increased estimate was "understandable and relatively close." The president also said yesterday that the government needs "needs to stay focused and principled." But the administration's budget, to be unveiled next week, is expected to produce a $520 billion deficit, about $150 billion more than the deficit for 2003. President Bush hasn't yet articulated how he'll successfully "cut the deficit in half over the next five years," other than being "wise with the people's money," as announced in his State of the Union. The White House has already announced an increase in spending for homeland security by 9.7%, a 7% increase for defense spending, and is stumping hard to make his tax cuts permanent, an additional cost of $2 trillion over ten years, according to the non-partisan Brookings Institution. The president spent much time yesterday claiming his tax cuts were successful and fair, "as opposed to trying to pick or choose winners in the political debate." All analyses, however, show that the top 1% received almost half of the president's tax cuts, even though that group pays only 21 percent of federal taxes. The Washington Post characterized Bush's speech as an "economic pep talk," in which the president lauded his tax cuts and an improving economy. Bush said his tax cuts were "working. People are finding work." However, the Post also reported on the facing page of Bush's speech, that a record number of jobless workers, 375,000, will exhaust their unemployment benefits tomorrow, the highest number ever recorded for a single month. CC

To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (533005)	1/30/2004 8:12:54 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

So much for the great economy of W IMF alarmed by U.S. foreign debt Elizabeth Becker and Edmund L. Andrews/NYT Thursday, January 8, 2004 Washington With its rising budget deficit and ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens the financial stability of the global economy, the International Monetary Fund said in a report released Wednesday. The report — nearly 60 pages of carefully worded analysis — was unusually harsh, raising a loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States and the rapid decline of the dollar. It also questioned the wisdom of Bush’s tax cuts and warned that large budget deficits pose ‘‘significant risks,’’ not just for the United States but for the rest of the world. The report warned that the United States’ net financial obligations to the rest of the world could be equal to 40 percent of its total economy within a few years, creating ‘‘an unprecedented level of external debt for a large industrial country’’ that the Fund said could play havoc with the value of the dollar and international exchange rates. The dangers, according to the report, are that the United States’ voracious appetite for borrowing could push up global interest rates and slow global investment and economic growth. The report added that an excessively steep decline in the dollar ‘‘could possi bly lead to adverse consequences both domestically and abroad’’ given that U.S. net external debt is at record levels and an abrupt weakening in investors’ faith in the dollar, the ‘‘abrupt weakening of investor sentiments vis-a-vis the dollar,’’ the IMF said, according to Agence France-Presse. White House officials dismissed the report as overly alarmist and said the IMF had been wrong before in criticizing the wisdom of Bush’s tax cuts. They said they were already bringing down the budget deficit and were not worried about the declining dollar. Though the IMF has criticized the United States on its budget and trade deficits repeatedly in the past few years, its latest report was unusually lengthy and critical. CC