From the
Dean blog:
"Under Bill Clinton, nearly one thousand jobs were created every three hours for eight straight years. Under George Bush, it took the entire month of December to create 1,000 jobs. What further proof do we need that George Bush's economic policies are a failure for working Americans?"
"An economic policy built on reckless deficits and irresponsible tax cuts has brought two consecutive years of job loss for the first time in over half a century. A half million Americans have lost their well-paying manufacturing jobs in the last year alone.
"It is time for George Bush to acknowledge that offering tax breaks to corporate special interests and the wealthy and imposing the 'Bush Tax' on working Americans is not the way to help the millions of workers and families hurt by his economy."
That Clinton created a thousand jobs every three hours is a brilliant way to put Bush's colossal failure on the jobs issue into context. It's an absolutely brutal criticism of Bush. I hope that quote makes its way into the news.
Since Dean hasn't yet proposed the rumored modification of his position on taxes to include a tax-fairness component, I'll point out that there are some valid concerns being expressed about his stance on repealing every nickel of the Bush tax cuts. While I think he's got exactly the right position on the issue, I am not blind to the fact that it's a difficult position to succeed with from a purely political standpoint.
That's why I'm really pushing the idea of The Bush Tax to people who are willing to listen. Those of us who pay attention realize quite well that the burden of paying for government that has been pushed onto us far outweighs any benefit that most of us working stiffs got from the tax cuts. But I do have concerns that Harry and Louise will only hear "Dean will raise your taxes!"
Life is unfair. And the irony of this isn't lost on me. If the economy were flush, people probably wouldn't recoil in horror from the idea of rolling back the tax cuts in order to balance the budget and pay for programs. But people are hurting, and obviously, the attention that is paid to the bottom line on everyone's pay stub is tremendous right now.
Even if Dean isn't the nominee, I think that The Bush Tax is a winning line of argument, especially for Clark in light of his new tax proposal. I hope that whomever the nominee ends up being will take this football and run it down the field.