April 4, 2004

One of the biggest, and most controversial campaign issues on the table now is the economy. I was recently asked by a Kerry supporter; “What has Bush done?”. In this article I will attempt to answer that question along with some explanation of the economy itself and why the Bush policies are important.

John Kerry is still out there saying “3 million jobs lost under Bush” as if Bush caused this. Although this number is exaggerated, and is actually closer to 2 million, this actually did happen but Bush had nothing to do with it. Kerry and the Democrats use it to try to convince people that this was all Bush’s fault and that‘s simply untrue. Now the Kerry campaign has surpassed themselves with another stupid blunder by spending millions of dollars on an ad campaign claiming a “jobless recovery”. Their big mistake was in approving and releasing this million dollar ad campaign on April 1^st, the day before the Labor Dept. released their new figures for the first 2004 quarter, they should have waited for that report. In the Labor Department’s report it shows a remarkable 308,000 jobs created in March 2004, and about 400,000 new jobs created in the first quarter of this year. The Kerry ads will be running non the less and making Kerry look like either a liar or an April fool. The fact is that there were increases in jobs, and the unemployment rate started falling in the last two quarters of 2003. Job creation is always the last economic indicator to react to a recession recovery and Kerry should know that.

Kerry is now inserting the word “manufacturing” into his public statements to cover up his false accusations over the past six months. It’s true that no new “manufacturing” jobs have been added and none are likely to be added either. The good news is that manufacturing layoffs have stopped and for the first time since 911, there were no manufacturing job losses last month either.

Why is manufacturing in America taking such an economic hit while other industries are recovering from the recession? There are several reasons. One is automation in manufacturing where fewer workers are needed. The automation creates new jobs in more technical industries such as computers and robotics as well as the service personnel to service them. Some workers need to be retrained from obsolete jobs into current ones. Kerry also points to “outsourcing” (sending jobs overseas) as a major reason for the decline in manufacturing jobs, this simply isn’t so. Outsourcing is nothing new and has been going on for decades. Outsourcing accounts for only 10% of the job losses in America since 911 but it also accounts for millions of Americans being employed by foreign countries who also use outsourcing TO America. If outsourcing were banned, then all those Americans who work for companies in this country like Sony, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, yes and even “The French Connection of United Kingdom” (FCUK), or just “The French Connection” (clothing stores) would loose their jobs. That is only the tip of the iceberg that would cost millions of jobs without the NAFTA outsourcing provisions.

There is another, and even more important reason for outsourcing of jobs in manufacturing that has to do with costs. Manufacturing is generally done by large publicly owned corporations who are responsible to their stockholders for showing a profit. If they don’t show a profit, the stocks are sold and the corporation net worth decreases allowing for less operating capital. This causes layoffs and reduced production and eventually the business goes under and out of business. Because of high taxes on businesses, federal regulations, frivolous lawsuits, workers comp abuses, and excessive union demands, manufacturing in America has become unaffordable if products are to be sold at competitive prices and a profit is maintained for stockholders. Manufacturers are left with the choice of going out of business or sending jobs overseas where the work can be done for a fraction of the cost. They are not doing this out of greed for profit, it’s become a necessity to stay in business.

Business and manufacturing fuels our economy and provides many, many millions of jobs in the retail and service industries and strengthen the stock market, even if the goods are not manufactured here. This is why Bush contends that outsourcing is good for the country. It provides millions of jobs for Americans working for America based, but foreign owned companies, and protects American businesses from being driven out of business due to high manufacturing costs in America. In other words, manufacturing costs have peaked in America and manufacturers simply can’t take it anymore and still remain in business. Americans and foreigners simply don’t want to pay higher prices for American made goods and will spend their money on foreign made goods by foreign manufacturers and drive more Americans out of the market. Outsourcing is the only way to keep American manufacturing companies in business and keep them competitive. Bush’s tax cuts and corporate incentives help to strengthen businesses and offset other costs to prevent further damage to manufacturers and the economy and that is the only reason for Bush’s business friendly policies contrary to what Kerry and the Democrats are saying.

Can you imagine the effect on jobs and the economy if companies like GE, Sylvania, RCA, Westinghouse, and others couldn’t outsource their assembly jobs offshore and were driven out of business? It would be an employment and economic disaster for America. The only way to bring those jobs back home is to remove most government regulations, eliminate manufacturing law suits and make workers comp affordable, eliminate labor unions, reduce the minimum wage to about $4.00/hr and increase the workday to 10 or 12 hours, and eliminate all company vacations and other benefits including health care. Now how many Americans are going to accept a job on those terms? Workers in foreign companies do, and keep American manufacturers in business and this helps our economy and protect the American jobs that depend on these businesses.

To understand the reasons for the recession and the 2 million + job losses, you have to go back about 12 years. Under Bush 41, the internet was made public. This had a huge effect on the economy all throughout the 90s both in computer manufacturing, software, I.T. research and technology, telecommunications, and in new dot com businesses. The economy was booming as a result, and because the Republican Congress wouldn’t allow President Clinton to spend our money on his socialist spending programs, the decade ended with a surplus in the Federal Treasury. Had it not been for the Republican controlled Congress, Clinton and Gore would have spent it all and then some and the ensuing recession which began in midyear 2000 would have been much worse. Bush didn’t take office until 2001 and his first economic bill wasn’t passed until the end of the year. By then, the recession was over a year old and getting worse.

Why a recession? For the same reason as the boom which turned into an economic bubble, the internet. In 1999, dot coms were beginning to realize that advertising on free web pages wasn’t making any money for them. They started going out of business after making huge investments and all that money was lost. One by one, the dot coms were folding. Less and less money was being invested into the economy and in the 3^rd quarter of 2000, the economy was showing negative growth. A recession is officially defined as 2 consecutive quarters of negative growth and although the 4^th quarter of 2000 was slightly positive because of Christmas shopping, the first two quarters of 2001 also came up negative and we were into a recession, Bush economic policies were not passes or in effect yet.

Businesses in addition to the dot coms started closing their doors for lack of business and workers were laid off by the thousands, not to mention the dot com employees who were also now out of work. Then came 911 which dealt a near fatal blow to the economy at a time when it was already in trouble. Bam! More businesses out of work, especially in the airlines, travel lodging, air maintenance service and supply. Smaller subcontracting business that depended on them also went under not to mention many business housed in the World Trade Center. Now we’re looking at a million or two people suddenly out of work and Bush had been in office for only 7 months.

Bush saw the recession coming even before taking office and one of the first things he did was introduce a bill to cut taxes on businesses to try to help them hang in there and not lay off more employees, and tax cuts across the board to put more money in people‘s pockets to spend. That is exactly what was needed to pull the economy out of a recession. Bush understood that but to this day, Kerry still does not and wants to raise taxes on businesses that create the jobs for you and me, reversing the economic recovery that Bush has brought about. Small business owners are among the people who Kerry is calling “The Rich” and the ones he wants to increase the tax burden on. Have no doubt, Kerry’s economic plans will cost many jobs, not create them.

On top of that, then we had the Corporate rip offs with Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Arthur Anderson, etc. More workers out of a job and loosing their retirement income and another blow to the economy. Eventually, it added up to somewhere over 2 million job losses, a sluggish economy, and had nothing to do with the Bush policies. Bush’s economic changes and policies kept it from becoming much worse which it would have under Kerry and as a result, this was the shortest recession in history with the strongest recovery ever, and now the economy is at it’s strongest level in over 30 years. The Bush policies worked, it’s that simple.

Kerry’s solution to this problem is higher taxes to strengthen the Federal Treasury. The problem with this thinking is that Businesses can’t afford more taxes and more would fall by the wayside costing even more jobs, less productivity, less profit, less collected in taxes even at a higher rate, because there is less income to collect taxes on, it’s a loose, loose scenario for everyone. Businesses can’t survive when the Federal Government has too much of their money. This is what scares the hell out of me about Kerry. I could loose my job if he’s elected because he doesn’t understand how to manage the economy.

Bush saved the economy and pulled it out of a recession that he didn’t cause, any more than he caused 911 or Enron. He gave it “CPR” when it was dying and kept it alive. He cracked down on corporate fraud and started bringing CEOs and CFOs to justice that had gone unchecked all during the Clinton years since the Clintons were a part of the problem itself. Even Hillary had her own corporate fraud scandal which the liberal media barely covered, it still hasn’t been properly investigated and resolved to this day, and she has not been held accountable for her major part in it. It’s a relief to have some honesty, integrity, and decency in the Whitehouse again although I know Liberals would disagree.

In addition to the recession and 911, Bush had to take military action against terrorism, as well as costly domestic changes in security, I won’t go into all that now. The deficit started climbing and to add to that, Congress continued to pass huge spending bills on things like Medicare, Federal education increases and “pork barrel” items that we really can’t afford right now. It didn’t stop there, they continued spending on just about everything they wanted to and we still had a war to pay for. Most Conservatives have been asking why did Bush sign these excessive spending bills that ran up the deficit? I believe they were passed because it was another way of pumping money into the economy to help with the recovery. I’m angry with the Republicans in Congress (it’s expected from the Democrats) and Bush for not putting the brakes on the unnecessary spending but I think they did it to keep the economy alive and help it on the path to recovery. You should know that all of that deficit spending was money being spent in America that went to companies and workers who didn’t have to be laid off because of it. Even the money spent on the war in Iraq was actually spent on American goods and services and helped stimulate the economy. It was a difficult job to do but it had to be done and Bush did it with all the conviction and faith in America that he has always displayed.

The recession is over now but Kerry and the Democrats are still painting a grim picture of the economy. They don’t tell you that two thirds of the lost jobs were replaced by other jobs and self employment. Jobs are lost and gained everyday and have been throughout the recession, but the Kerry campaign only mentions the losses and not the replacements and gains to try to support their claims. What that means is that there are not 2 or 3 million + people out of work who had jobs before as Kerry claims, most found other jobs but didn‘t tell John Kerry apparently.

The jobs that were lost will never come back, they’re out of business as a result of the recession and also a changing job market in America. That’s nothing new, it’s always been that way. It’s called progress and automation. If you want to know the truth about the current unemployment, just look at the unemployment figures which just went up slightly from 5.6% to 5.7%. That is about the same as the average unemployment throughout the nineties, and below the average over the past 30 years. The reason for the slight increase in the last quarter is because more workers have come back into the job market from self employment now that more jobs are being offered.

The economy is now experiencing it’s largest growth factor in over 30 years, and soon, more employers will be hiring more. The little company I work for has added 2 new employees in the past 6 months and we only have 8 employees. That’s a big improvement over last year when we couldn’t even get in 40 hours a week. Bush pulled the economy out of the sewer and has built it up to record strength. Federal budget deficit spending has been reduced to 1.5% in the 2005 budget and is expected to reduce to 0 in the 2006 budget. Bush has introduced a plan to pay off the deficit over a ten year period if no other disasters befall our country. Does this sound like we are laying our debts on our children and grandchildren as the Kerry campaign is saying? We likely will if Kerry is elected.

The economy is now in better shape than it’s been in decades with the exception of unemployment which is now beginning to see vast improvements. Some parts of the country are worse than others. Ohio may be the worst because of their heavy dependence on manufacturing which is on the decline in America because of the high manufacturing costs.

The big difference between Bush and Kerry on the economy is that Bush has always held the belief that the people should be able to keep and spend their own money and has proved that with his tax cuts. Kerry, on the other hand, believes that the Federal Government should be spending your money for you on their programs and has voted over 300 times to raise your taxes to prove it. Kerry also is saying he’s going to create a million new jobs in his first 100 days as president. Do you believe that? The President does not create jobs unless he hires people on the federal payroll at taxpayer’s expense. Private businesses create jobs and there is nothing the President can do about that other than to make business friendly tax policies. Kerry can’t do better than Bush on that issue.

Kerry is criticizing Bush on the cost of gasoline now too. Bush has no control over that either, nor does any president. The oil companies are publicly owned, international corporations and control their own prices which largely depend on the price of oil from OPEC. Kerry is saying that he will simply go to OPEC and use his clout to make them lower their prices. They haven’t listened to any other world leaders or American president, what makes him think they are going to blindly obey him? Will he offer to pull all of our troops and bases out of the middle east in return? This is just an example of the pompous, self important ass that he is. He has been saying asinine things like this ever since he started campaigning and they’re no more valid today than they were a year ago. Bush is doing everything possible to discourage OPEC from cutting production, he doesn’t want higher gasoline prices anymore than you or I do, they certainly won‘t help his campaign.

Bush didn’t get rich from oil, he made it with his investment of $10,000 in the Texas Rangers Baseball Team and parlayed that into 13 million. Dick Cheney resigned one of his many held positions as CEO of Halliburton before taking government office and has no interest in that company other than what they legally owe him. The is no oil on either of their hands and no incentive for them to want higher oil prices as Kerry is claiming.

Some Socialist foreign countries would prefer Kerry to Bush because they can’t control Bush the way they could with Kerry. Bush is one who does what he believes is right for our country, not what foreign leaders want him to do, not even what may be the popular view in America, but what he believes is the right thing to do for the country. We can’t leave our national security in the hands of countries like France as Kerry wants to do, nor can we let popular opinion rule our president. We can’t turn our Armed Forces over to the UN as Kerry suggests doing. The UN does not function in the best interests of our country and is influenced by many countries unfriendly to America such as terrorist supporting countries, France, and other socialist countries who hate America because of who we are and what we have and the nation we have built. I don’t trust the UN or Kofi Anon and don’t want them interfering in our affairs, but that‘s where Kerry want to run to with our national security and national sovereignty. It doesn’t make good sense to trust these issues to people who do not share our views or interests.

It doesn’t matter if we’re liked or not by socialist European countries or Islamic dictatorships, what matters is if we’re respected as a strong nation. Most Americans don’t like France but do we expect them to change to suit us? No we don’t, and we have no reason to change to get them to like us either. We are Americans who have built this country from the ground up and made it the most free and prosperous nation in the world. We are what we are and the French are what they are. Would you rather live in France with all their social and economic problems and an unemployment rate of 12% and an army who is afraid to fight? Just who do they think they are to criticize us? Of course they don’t like us, it’s the same as people who envy and despise the rich simply because they aren‘t, and live in an apartment instead of a mansion with a pool and a six car garage.

Because of the strength Bush has shown in the war on terror, other Arab countries such as Libya, Sudan, and Iran are now surrendering their WMD and allowing weapons inspections. Libya turned over WMD that we didn’t even know they had and all because of Bush’s actions in Iraq. Bush may not be liked by allot of foreigners such as Socialists, Terrorists, and Communists, but he is respected. He has prevented any further attacks on our country since 9-11-01 by increasing domestic security and foreign intelligence, cutting off funding to terrorists and freezing their assets, and eliminating terrorist weapons in rogue countries. Those who harbor terrorists know that Bush means business and will be coming after them if they don’t shape up and cooperate with the civilized world.

In view of the difficulties and challenges faced by our nation over the past three years, Bush has not been getting the credit he is due. He has in fact, been taking a beating by people like John Kerry who want Americans to think just the opposite to get themselves elected regardless of the damage they do to our country and the American deaths they cause in the war zone by encouraging the enemy. In all of John Kerry’s criticism of Bush on the economy, has he ever once mentioned the recession? Has he ever mentioned 911 as a contributing factor? No, he simply blames it all on Bush and ignores the true facts. Kerry will not be successful in this campaign for one simple reason; you can’t win an election with a campaign based on lies. Not in this country today with our freedom of information and where lies won’t hold up to the truth. I feel sorry for the Kerry campaign because they have a very difficult job of trying to replace a good president who has been doing a very professional job and has no reason to be replaced. The only thing left for Kerry to do is to make up stories and try to convince people they’re true. The sad thing is that he has found many uninformed followers who don’t know any better, don’t want to know any better and never will, and will vote for him because their party spokesmen have taught them to hate President Bush.

So the answer to “What has Bush done for America” is; More than any other president since Roosevelt has done, or has had to do to protect the country and it’s economy, restore decency, integrity, honesty, and respect to the Whitehouse, and put the good of America and doing what’s right ahead of his personal interests and even his reelection. What more could we ask from a President? God bless America and President Bush in his second term.