This morning at the gym, one of the TVs on the wall in front of me was tuned to Good Morning America and so I watched a sad attempt by the new Treasury Secretary, John Snow, to promote the Bush plan for the economy. You know, the one with all the giveaways to the rich, including making dividend payments tax-free to the recipient (albeit only when the payments come out of actual profits), that most economists think is worse than ridiculous.
The one that will send our already-spiraling budget deficit through the roof, which is why so many CEO’s, who you’d think would generally benefit from the plan, are taking such a Dim View of it instead. Alan Greenspan and his pals at the Federal Reserve aren’t too hot on the plan either in light of the sad shape the economy is in.
Snow, formerly CEO of a huge transportation company who often spoke out against deficit spending when Clinton was president, tried to duck that hypocrisy while speaking with Diane Sawyer but could only come up with a non-responsive obfuscation instead. Particularly when she asked him about the effect of a war with Iraq on the economy. Later in the day, testifying at a congressional committee, Snow continued his claim that fears of deficits were way overblown and, anyway, it isn’t the fault of his administration since any surpluses people spoke about two years ago were fantasies of the outgoing administration. Sad what we got ourselves into based on a few hanging chads, isn’t it?
BillSaysThis 