Election Issues 2004: August 2004 Archives

Let's begin with a background number not often discussed, the total American debt is now 37 trillion dollars. That is the sum total of business, personal, trade, and national government debts. 24 of the 37 trillion dollar debt have accrued since 1990. This number is growing at a phenomenal rate. The total labor force is 147.9 million (Bureau of Labor Statistics). That 37 trillion dollar total American debt equals $250,169.00 give or take a few dollars, for every working man and woman in this country. In other words this is a quarter million dollar debt for each and every working man and woman and spiraling. On November 2, voters can elect to do something about a large portion of this debt.

A glance at the headline political stories this last week could lead one to wonder if we'd had a revolution and were reinventing America from scratch. It seems everything is being rehashed, debated, and even recreated. President Bush commented about looking into a regressive sales tax which would mean reinventing the IRS. His aides quickly pulled him away. Our voting system is so broken, the State Dep't. has agreed to bring international observers in to monitor our elections on Nov. 2.

One of our conservative visitors is fond of referencing Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd as a former KKK member in the Senate. Sen. Byrd reformed himself half a lifetime ago and today is the most knowledgeable historian of the Senate and a champion of equal rights and racial equality. In other words, Byrd's history of being a KKK member is ancient history and has not been true of the Senate Historian for many decades. But this article is not about Senator Byrd. It is about the Grand Old Party and racism.

The terrorist alert announced Sunday contained much more specific information about targets and even time frame. Unfortunately for the administration, it was discovered that the basis for information regarding the alert was several years old. This prompted skepticism and doubt as to the motives of the Whitehouse in issuing the alert, with some claiming it was a political ploy to scare voters into staying the course with Bush in November's election.