Insistent economic issues are reasserting
their primacy, even in wartime, with the
nation under constant threat of terrorist attack

From the Houston Chronicle editorial board:

U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that average wages have increased hardly at all over the last two decades. Medium household income has risen, but more people are working longer hours and multiple jobs. Eroding health insurance coverage has left many families worse off, even if their income rose.

U.S. economic prosperity depends upon consumers' sustained profligacy. As a consequence, the Federal Reserve Board reported in June, household debt has grown by 9 or 10 percent each year since the 2001 recession. President Bush is touting financial initiatives under the rubric of "ownership society." The typical household, however, would be better off gaining affordable health insurance and reducing its high-interest debt than acquiring new property.

Although middle-class Americans enjoyed some tax cuts under the Bush administration, the gains were often wiped out by rising property tax bills.

Click here for the rest.

The failed conservative policies on the economy, from both parties, but especially from the Republicans, have made the middle class but a shadow of its former self: even though the conventional economic wisdom is that “a rising tide raises all boats,” it turns out that these higher waters threaten to drown most Americans. When economic growth depends on people maxing out their credit cards and staying up to their ears in debt, it’s pretty clear that there’s something terribly wrong with the way that we understand economics. Why the hell don’t the stuffed shirts in Washington do something about this?

Obviously, it’s because the corporations and super-wealthy families who benefit from such a point of view donate by far the most money to political campaigns. Cesspool on the Potomac.

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