Where Was Mark Kirk?
When George W. Bush squandered America's budget with huge spending and misguided tax cuts, where was Mark Kirk? Right by Bush’s side.
Mark Kirk has been standing with President George Bush and his economic policies since 2001. Now we are staring down a $700 billion abyss, this time with that amount going to Wall Street in New York, not Haifa Street in Baghdad.
It is all making the deficit explode. Who is going to pay for this mess? In the short term, it looks like the Chinese are willing to finance the U.S. deficit. In the long term, our children and our grandchildren will foot the bill for our current government’s refusal to pay for its mess.
According to President Bush, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts were initiated in order to revive a stalled economy. Mark Kirk voted in favor of those cuts, with most of the tax savings going to the wealthiest Americans. In 2001, even John McCain stated "I cannot support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who most need tax relief." He, not Kirk, was right in 2001. They are both wrong now.
Did these tax cuts revive a stalled economy? The answer is NO. According to data compiled by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and based upon information from the Congressional Budget Office, the desired expansion results are weaker for six of seven measured parameters than for most of the 12 economic recoveries since World War II. The six that were below average are: gross domestic production; consumption; investment; net worth; wages and salaries; and employment. Not surprisingly, the only factor enjoying an increase was corporate profits. These statistics covered a period from 2001 through the third quarter of 2007. If 2008 were added, the results would be even bleaker.
Yet one of the Bush-McCain-Kirk panaceas for economic expansion is to make these tax cuts permanent. The effect on our deficit would be disastrous with the addition of $4.4 TRILLION over the 10 year span from 2009-2018. And they did not and will not work!
Mark Kirk endorses a failed approach to taxation. Kirk is dead wrong.
Where Was Mark Kirk?
Right by Bush’s side.
There’s a better tomorrow for America. It begins on November 4th.
