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How
is Better the Wrong Direction?
EDITORIAL
Frank Salvato
September 3, 2004 |
Now
that the Kerry campaign is on the defensive and sliding in the polls we are
hearing one of their core talking points more and more: America is heading
in the wrong direction. Every time I hear this comment I end up scratching
my head. Either it is a baseless accusation the Kerry campaign wants to
instill in the voters’ heads by repeating it ad nauseum or they have a very
twisted view of the correct direction for our country.
Let’s take a look at one component of our "national well-being,” a component
they contend is in jeopardy due to the direction we are headed, the supposed
"terrible economy.”
In 1996, when Bill Clinton was running for re-election, he extolled the
magnificence of a 5.6% unemployment rate. It was one of the cornerstones of
his re-election campaign. The Democrats, including John Kerry, spouted-off
repeatedly citing the sublimity of the unemployment rate, a rate they
contended reflected the prosperity being enjoyed by the American people.
Today as President Bush enjoys a 5.5% unemployment rate the Kerry campaign
has somehow decided that what was great for Clinton is disastrous for Bush.
Somehow between 1996 and 2004 a 5.5% unemployment rate has gone from a good
thing, nay a great thing, to something that is a precursor to the end of our
country, as we know it. To say that the Kerry campaign and the modern day,
Zell Miller-less Democratic party are maintaining hypocrisy would be an
understatement. They are practicing deceit.
In the face of what this country has been through i.e., September 11th and
the corporate scandals that were allowed to gather during the Clinton years,
to maintain a 5.5% unemployment rate is an achievement in itself. Built on
sound business practices instead of a paper-tiger dot.com bubble, this
unemployment rate is on the way down, not teetering on speculation as it was
in the 1990s. Yet the Kerry campaign says we are moving in the wrong
direction.
Further, the Kerry campaign and the "dooms day” Democratic Party continue to
say that the Bush Administration has presided over the worst job loss
statistic since Herbert Hoover. While this sounds ominous – they are big on
grandiose and short on substance – they fail to address that fact that NAFTA
is the most significant reason for this statistic.
NAFTA, signed into law by President Clinton, has allowed more American
companies to utilize cheaper foreign labor in the face of higher wage and
benefit demands championed by organized labor unions, organization that make
it harder for the businesses to "retool” structurally in an effort to
modernize and compete. At its signing John Kerry supported NAFTA. Now he
rails against outsourcing, a door opened by NAFTA. That in itself shows how
little vision John Kerry has when making decisions. And the Kerry campaign
tries to blame George W. Bush for this predictable development. Either Kerry
is disingenuous, inept in his decision making process or both.
This "terrible economy” we currently find ourselves in today sees more
people owning their own homes than at any other time in recorded American
history. In 1996 the US Census Bureau reported that 65.4% of people owned
their own homes. During this time people were financing their purchases with
a 7.8% interest rate. While the rate of home ownership was good the
percentage rate at which these purchases were financed ultimately took a
large chunk out of a families income.
In 2003 the US Census Bureau reports that 68.3% of people owned their own
homes, an increase of 2.9%, and this number has only risen since then,
achieving a level of home ownership never seen before in American history.
Combine that with the fact that mortgage rates are at a near fifty-year low
courtesy of a 1.51% interest rate and only an idiot would contend that the
American homeowner was worse off today then he or she was four years ago.
Yet, again, the Kerry camp says we are moving in the wrong direction.
When all is said and done our economy is strong, thriving and only getting
better, courtesy of President Bush’s steadfast leadership and the fact that
he believes in the ingenuity and wherewithal of the American people.
Recession has been thwarted, inflation is being averted and more jobs are
being added every day courtesy of small business and the help it gets from
the Bush tax cuts.
Now if that’s moving America in the wrong direction I shudder to think what
the Kerry campaign would consider the right direction. But then, when has
John Kerry been on the correct side of an issue in the last 20 years?
Jen Shoemaker contributed to the research of in this piece.
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