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The True State of the Union |
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Written by Bryan McCanless ::
July 15, 2006
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Washington leadership caused America to lose its gripJOB GROWTH IS ANEMIC!Four and a half million jobs have been created since January 2003 compared with 10 million that were created in the first four years of the previous administration. During Bush’s presidency, the U.S. has experienced the slowest job creation on record (going back to 1939), and most of the jobs that are being created don’t pay a living wage because the majority of them are waitresses, bartenders, and other low paying service jobs. In fact, during the past five years of Bush’s Presidency, the U.S. has lost 17 percent of its manufacturing jobs.[1]
GOOD JOBS THAT PAY A LIVING WAGE ARE NOT ARE NOT BEING CREATED!Of the 4.5 million jobs have been created since January 2003, nearly one million of those jobs for a family of four pay 40% below the poverty line![2]
BUSH’S SO-CALLED RECOVERYOverall Bush job record (since January 2001):
- 1.5 million net new private sector jobs created
- 2 million net jobs lost that pay above the overall average weekly wage of $541 (2005 dollars)
- 1.1 million net jobs created that pay below the overall average weekly wage
- 2.2 million net jobs created that pay at the average weekly wage
WAR ON THE MIDDLE CLASSSince Bush took office, the U.S. economy has lost 1.8
million jobs that would enable a household to be in the middle quintile
(middle class; i.e., an income of $35,915 to $59,000 per year).
However, the U.S. economy has created 2.1 million net jobs that would
enable a household to be in the second lowest quintile, the “working
class” (i.e., an income of $19,127 to $35,915 per year)
One million net jobs were created that would keep a family of four 40
percent below the poverty line, 67 percent of the total of all the net
new private sector jobs created during the Bush’s presidency!
American workers ended 2005 with fewer private sector hours worked than
it had in January 2001. This creates more financial stress on
individuals and families at a time when household debt is increasing
due to less hours worked and decreasing wages. The following data
documents this disturbing trend:
2000
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2001
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2002 |
2003
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2004
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2005
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| 34.3 |
34 |
33.9 |
33.7 |
33.7 |
33.8 |
Average weekly hours of production workers (all private)[3]
As further evidence of jobs being created that don’t pay a living wage
the Chicago Sun-Times reported on January 26, 2006 that 25,000 people
applied for 325 Wal-Mart jobs at a new Wal-Mart store that opened on
Chicago’s city boundry. Also, in Oakland, California, 11, 000 people
applied for a few low-paying Wal-Mart jobs.
Median Household Income in Decline
2000
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2001
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2002 |
2003
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2004
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| $46,058 |
$45,062 |
$44,546 |
$44,482 |
$44,389 |
Median household income (in 2004 dollars)[4]
Poverty Is Increasing Because of the Poor Economy
2000
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2001
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2002 |
2003
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2004
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| 11.3 |
11.7 |
12.1 |
12.5 |
12.7 |
Millions of people below poverty level[5]
Household Savings Down, Debt Up!
As a result of median household income falling every year for the past
five years, in 2005 for the first time since the Great Depression in
the 1930s, American consumers spent more than they earned.[6]
Business Savings Down, U.S. Government Deficits Up!
In 2003 and 2004, the U.S. government budget deficit was larger than all business savings combined.[7]
As a result of the economic policies of the current political
Washington, D.C. leadership, the economy is hurting middle class
families. The jobs being created don’t pay a living wage as we
documented in the foregoing data. As a result of Establishment —
neoconservative Republican economic policies — the richest one percent
benefit at the expense of the working people.
FREE TRADE TREASON IS THE REASONFree Traders should be called
Free Traitors. Every industry that faces foreign outsourcing or import
competition is losing jobs; for example, Ford and General Motors are
losing 30,000 jobs each. If free trade or outsourcing ideals were true,
some industries would be expanding employment, yet none are. In the
last five years under Bush’s Rockefeller Republican policies, we have
accumulated nearly $3 trillion in trade deficits.[8]
This means Americans have consumed $3 trillion more in goods and
services than they produced and turned over $3 trillion of their
existing assets to foreigners. This is a transfer of $3 trillion from
the pockets of Americans to foreigners!
Technology
Republican leadership constantly reassures Americans that we are the
leaders in advanced technology and that we don’t need jobs making
clothes or even semi-conductors. During Bush’s Presidency, the U.S. has
lost its trade surplus in manufactured advanced technology products
(ATP). The U.S. no longer earns enough from high tech to cover any part
of its import bill for oil, autos, or clothing.[9]
The economic decline of America has accelerated! It does not seem that
the U.S. is a superpower when we are dependent on China for advanced
technology products (i.e., military components for defense), and
America is dependent on Asia to finance its massive deficits and
foreign wars.[10]
At the current rate of decline the U.S. will be a third-world economy
in ten years or less. This is the result of forty years of the Eastern
Establishment’s globalist economic policies dating back to the Kennedy
Round GATT Agreement of 1965.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Surbey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements
- U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplements
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/TableView.asp#Mid
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/TableView.asp#Mid; and Historical Tables, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2007
- Foreign Trade Division
- Foreign Trade Division of U.S. Dept. of Commerce
- Congressional Research Service, Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt
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