Letter: Bush’s booming economy a lie

Wednesday, March 22, 2006 | 7:09 a.m.

There was a very important editorial in the March 20 Las Vegas Sun that was headlined "Straight talk about deficits." I recommend that everyone interested take the time to read it. The Bush administration and the Republicans keep trumpeting the theme: We have created a roaring economy by our tax-cutting for the rich. What a farce. It is now estimated that the national debt burden for every man, woman and child in the United States is $30,000.

The editorial only addressed the problem at the federal level. Digging deeper, you find that the personal indebtedness has risen, too. Untold numbers live with maxed-out cards and delinquent mortgage payments with creditors hounding them on a daily basis. They cannot seek relief through bankruptcy because of new restrictive laws, limiting access to bankruptcy, enacted by the Republican-controlled Congress.

The administration points with pride to low unemployment figure, but does not address the nearly 3 million factory jobs that have been lost since mid-2000. These former factory workers, whose jobs have been outsourced, have used up their unemployment payments. Many of them have given up their futile search for comparable jobs. Nor does the administration address the reality that most of the jobs that they tout as being created have been at the lower end of the wage scale - in many cases, barely above minimum wages.

President Bush, instead of speaking before one of his handpicked audiences, should give his "booming economics" speeches to a food line in a high unemployment area in a city where factories have been closed. I doubt if there would be thunderous applause interrupting his speech on cue.

Ray Harbert, Las Vegas