Bush, Economic Policy and the March of Folly

“Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,
And any thing that may not misbecome”

Shakespeare, “Henry V”

- Complete fiscal irresponsibility leading to the largest budget deficits in US history.
- An insistence on “Making the tax cuts permanent.”
- An annual balance of trade deficit larger than the economies of half a dozen nations combined.
- A push to borrow $2 trillion to finance a bizarre scheme to restructure Social Security, a system our president seems bound and determined to fix even though it is not broken.

It would be difficult to imagine what more the Bush administration could do to put the entire US economy at risk. If it wasn’t for George’s incessant flag waving and professed faith in Jesus (acts which garner the unquestioning support of religious conservatives) I would think that W. had only one goal, the complete destruction of the US economy.

The issue at hand is not one of complex economics, it is a matter of simple arithmetic. The Republican Party under Ronald Reagan, George Bush #1, and George Bush #2 has demonstrated a level of fiscal incompetence that defies explanation and placed our entire way of life at risk. It is from these three administrations that the United States government derives the vast majority of the current national debt. More disturbingly, these presidents owe much to the religious right who will vote compliantly and lend their support without question as long as their chosen leaders pacify them with promises end abortion and punish gays. That these promises are never delivered on and that these administrations have promoted the worst forms of crony capitalism, pursued foreign policies devoid of any attempt at negotiated solutions and engaged in inexplicable military adventurism not only goes unnoticed by the religious right but seems to motivate ever greater levels of support. When nations engage in behaviors that are clearly contrary to their own best interest they begin what historian Barbara Tuchman called “the March of Folly.”

As for the Bush’s escalating Economic mess I give you this must read item from Britain’s conservative news magazine, the Economist:

America has habits that are inappropriate, to say the least, for the guardian of the world's main reserve currency: rampant government borrowing, furious consumer spending and a current-account deficit big enough to have bankrupted any other country some time ago. This makes a dollar devaluation inevitable, not least because it becomes a seemingly attractive option for the leaders of a heavily indebted America. Policymakers now seem to be talking the dollar down. Yet this is a dangerous game. Why would anybody want to invest in a currency that will almost certainly depreciate?