Deconstructing Bush

In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, Bush says:

I believe that when America is willing to use her influence abroad, the American people are safer and the world is more secure. I believe that wealth does not come from government. It comes from the hard work of America's workers, entrepreneurs and small businesses. I believe government closest to the people is more responsive and accountable. I believe government plays an important role in helping those who can't help themselves. Yet we must always remember that when people are hurting, they need a caring person, not a government bureaucracy.

America's "influence abroad," in this case, is the invasion of a country because Bush had it in his head to invade it from the day he entered the White House. The invasion had absolutely nothing to do with national security, and the American people are now undoubtedly less secure, as is the world.

Wealth indeed does come from America's workers, but no one said it came from government. And the workers from whom wealth comes have been significantly cheated by this administration by its expansion of the divide between the very wealthy and everyone else, and by its failure to provide decent health benefits to workers.

Though many would agree that government closest to the people is more responsive and accountable, there are several things wrong with that statement. Where I live, for example, government closest to me is neither responsive nor accountable most of the time, and I have a feeling I'm not alone. More important, however, is the glaring fact that Bush has made the federal government more powerful than anyone could have imagined, permitting and encouraging its agents to spy on Americans, set forth educational standards that cannot be met because they are not funded, squelch free speech, and even interfere with classroom content that it believes is not sexist or religious enough.

And when people are hurting--say, people who just lost everything and are struggling to stay alive after a hurricane--you bet your ass they need a government bureaucracy. Only they need one that works, and one that gives a damn.

It is a fact that economies do best when you reward hard work by allowing people to keep more of what they have earned. And we have seen that businesses can expand and hire more workers when they have more money to invest--and since August 2003, America's employers have added more than seven million new jobs.

"More of what they have earned." Right. Which amounts to a few dollars, unless you happen to be ultra-wealthy, and then it amounts to a whole lot of dollars. And as for those seven million new jobs, a large percentage of them are part-time jobs, which means that those who hold them have no benefits. And a large percentage of them involve things like talking into loudspeakers at fast food restaurants.

Bush went on to talk about his desire to get rid of secrecy in governent (I'll pause here, so you can stop laughing--or banging your head against the wall), and his desire for affordable health care (keep banging).