The Bush Depression

What plans have the Presidential Candidates announced to turn the economy around from a very deep recession back to a robust economy that was in place during the Clinton Administration. New York State is about to announce that the State budget is in the worse shape since the Great Depression. The just passed housing bill is being touted as the largest government bailout since the Great Depression by the European Press. Two more banks were taken over by the FDIC over the weekend and there is worry in financial circles that over 150 more banks will fail throughout the country in the next few months. The response from the Administration is that the economy is stable but growing slowly. The response from the McCain Campaign is that it is all in our minds, there is not a recession. The response from the Obama Campaign is that yes American families are hurting and an Obama Administration will address this with middle class tax cuts. The response from Congress is, that's right silence.

During the Great Depression Roosevelt started public WPA and the CCC, two programs funded by the Federal government that accomplished many large projects throughout the Country that are still used today. Right now, today 2008, there is a need to institute similar programs that will work on the infrastructure of the Country in every State in the union, and another program that will transform all government energy use from fossil fuel based energy to sustainable, renewable, alternative energy solutions. Every Publicly owned street light, traffic signal and street sign should be converted to solar based lighting, thus creating jobs and removing all of this electrical use off of the electrical grid that relies on burning fossil fuels. A project like this at market wages would be a major stimulus to the economy and it would be a long lasting benefit to the Nation by removing millions of kilowatts of energy from the fossil fuel grids year after year. This is the kind of projects that a forward looking Government would contemplate. Senator McCain would like to offer more Government land to oil companies for drilling, this will only benefit the oil company profits and do little to affect the cost of energy which is sinking us deeper into a recession. Senator Obama's tax plan is necessary but again it would have no affect on the current economic situation.

The current recession is a direct result of the policies of the Republican Congress and the Republican Administration from 2000 till now. The right wing owned media and the Republican Officials will continue to try to spin this as a failure of Government, it is not a failure of Government, it is a failure of those who were governing and their ideas and principles. The Conservative Agenda is a failure and should be buried just as the fossil fuel era should be buried. The Fossil Fuel Era at least served our Nation well for over 50 years, but the Political Conservative Movement which gained a foot hold with the Election of Ronald Reagan has been a complete and utter failure for the majority of Americans. The only Americans served by the policies of the Regan Wing of the Republican Party has been the the captains of Industry, the Robber Barons and the ultra wealthy.