Once again CNN has another great article. This one basically talks about our nation and how much we have actually declined.
By standards of national cohesion, economic and social justice, international respect, and fiscal vitality, the United States has lost much ground since 9-11, and we’re not winning this war.
Now I don’t consider myself to be very political but this article echos the feelings of many people I know, myself included. I personally did not vote for Bush, and this article points out many of the reasons why:
The United States is less favorably regarded and much more isolated in the world than it was before 9-11.
Japan, France and Germany are all more favorably regarded than the United States by the countries of Europe, and China has a more positive image than the United States among the Europeans
Today, there are 5.4 million more Americans living in poverty, most of them children, than there were when George W. Bush was elected president.
The number without health insurance grew by more than 6 million from 2000 to 2004, to more than 45 million Americans.
Inflation-adjusted hourly and weekly wages are still below where they were in the fall of 2001, in spite of the fact that worker productivity has risen some 13.5 percent during that same time.
For five years in a row, Americans’ median household income has dropped. It was actually $1,740 lower in 2004 than it had been in 1999.
The real value of the minimum wage has fallen by 82 cents from $6.02 to $5.15 an hour since 2000 to today.
The household income of the highest quintile of the population has increased by 52 percent, while that same figure for the lowest quintile has grown by not quite 5 percent. In other words: the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.
Oh, and one other thing…
The nation’s fiscal health has deteriorated. When Bush took office, the debt ceiling for all federal borrowing was under $6 trillion and had not been raised since 1997. Last year, Bush signed into law another $800 billion increase in the debt ceiling to $8.2 trillion. In the first 224 years of the nation, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a total of $1.01 trillion from all foreign sources. In just over one term in office, George W. Bush has out-borrowed all 42 of his predecessors.
Now seriously ask yourself “Are we better off now than we were in 2001?”
