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PINE BLUFFS ─ Recent polls show that many voters, Republicans and Democrats alike, are upset with the President. Indeed, his ratings have dipped to a surprising low. The only ratings lower than his are those of Congress, as it slowly dawns on disgusted Americans what they ushered in with their 2006 votes.
But wait just a minute. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the President and his Administration are doing a pretty good job. That agency’s latest report showed 88,000 new jobs created in April 2007. Add that figure to the previous cumulative total of jobs created since August 2003 and we see that more than 7.8 million new jobs have come on line, and more than 1.8 million of those were created in the last year alone.
Further, commenting on the BLS report shortly before his death from cancer a few days ago, the late Senator Craig Thomas (R-WY), said it “. . . shows that our economy continues to grow stronger every day. Our nation’s unemployment rate remains a low 4.5 percent, and Wyoming’s unemployment rate continues to be one of the lowest in the nation – 2.6 percent. People’s income has risen more than $3000 since 2001, and wages are rising at a faster rate than they did during the boom of the late 1990s.”
If you recall, in 2003 the President fought to push tax cuts through Congress, and a Republican Congress helped him do it because the members agreed with Mr. Bush that more of our hard-earned dollars should remain with us to be spent as we see fit, rather than being collected by the IRS and dispersed by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. obsessed with the notion of redistributing the people’s wealth.
According to the Cheyenne Business Monthly (June 2007), in addition to cutting taxes on everyone who pays income taxes, the Bush Administration doubled the child tax credit, reduced the discriminatory marriage penalty, cut taxes on dividends and capital gains, and continued propelling the Federal Estate tax down the road toward extinction.
As a result, in 2007 113 million taxpayers will receive an average tax cut of $2,216, 45 million families with children will receive an average tax cut of $2,864, 27 million small business owners will receive an average tax break of $4,711, and over 5 million individuals and families will see their income tax liability completely eliminated.
So what’s not to like about the job Mr. Bush is doing? Surely you’re not complaining about his Supreme Court appointments. Judges Roberts and Alito provided the margin necessary to pass the Partial Birth Abortion ban, which when Democrat President Bill Clinton occupied the White House, he vetoed twice after Congressional passage. And Mr. Bush’s refusal to permit federal dollars to be spent on embryonic stem cell research which destroys human life? You don’t like that one? Last week, Congress, with help from anti-life Democrats and a few Republicans who jumped ship, passed a law permitting just that. President Bush will veto it, and Congress does not have enough votes to override his veto, thank God. There’s enough private money out there eager to fund this type of research, which Christians everywhere oppose as immoral while supporting the type of research which does not kill human embryos, and which has already produced many cures.
Oh, yes. There’s that immigration issue. GW’s stubborn refusal to close the borders and round up all 12 million illegals and deport them before seeking passage of “comprehensive” immigration reform cost him the support of much of his base in the 2006 election, resulting in Democrats controlling both houses of Congress. This week the so-called “comprehensive immigration reform” bill, developed by Ted (Chappaquiddick) Kennedy (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ), went down to defeat the necessary 60 cloture votes to cut off debate and bring the bill to the floor could not be mustered before an angered voting public and many Senators who finally got the message that we want the borders closed (that’s a security issue) and the illegals out of our country (that involves issues of obedience to the law, respect for the country to which Mexicans seek entry, and jobs for our own underclass: i.e. uneducated or undereducated blacks and whites alike).
Well what about the Iraq War? Didn’t the President lie to get us into it? And hasn’t he mishandled it so far? The answer to the first question is NO. The second would require a book to answer. One would need to deal with the causes of the secular and sectarian strife occurring in that fledgling Democracy in the Middle East, not the least of which is the power struggle between Shiites and Sunnis for control of oil proceeds, the desire of many to create a theocracy there, and the undue interference of surrounding nations such as Syria and Iran in the Iraqi struggle.
No one agrees with anyone all the time. Republicans can and should register disagreement with their President over issues about which they feel strongly. But to abandon Mr. Bush and other Republicans in the House and Senate now will only do more harm than good.
Let’s get reasonable. We can certainly recognize the fact that George Bush is a lame duck president, while throwing our support behind him and his policies with which we agree, most of which are morally, legally, and fiscally sound. To do otherwise divides the Republican Party, leaves the door open for Democrats and liberals such as Harry Reid (D-NV) and Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to inject their ill-advised brand of socialistic control over our government as they attempt to remake it in a manner never intended by the Founding Fathers and not at all to the liking of mainstream Americans, while destroying the traditional values that have made this country great.
Anthony J. Sacco, Sr. a writer, author of two novels, and a licensed private investigator, holds degrees from Loyola College and the University of Maryland Law School. E-mail him at AnthonyJSacco@hotmail.com. Visit his website at www.saccoservices.com