BushCheney’s Bungling: By the Numbers
April 21, 2008 at 4:02 pm (Political, Social)
HightowerLowdown.org has recently published an excellent article that provides a breakdown of the State of our Union before and after the disastrous Bush/Cheney administration. You can read about the details in What 8 years of BushCheney have done to our economy. I have been paying attention to many of these numbers over the past several years, but some of these stats are just amazing.
| 2001 | 2008 | |
| Corporate profits before tax | $719.2 billion | $1,769.5 billion |
| Corporate profits after tax | $503.8 billion | $1,351.9 billion |
|
U.S. trade deficit per year |
$380 billion |
$759 billion |
|
Net worth of the wealthiest 1% |
$186 billion |
$816 billion |
|
Median pre-tax household income |
$49,158 |
$48,201 |
| Americans without health insurance | 38.4 million | 46.9 million |
| Average cost/year at a public 4-year college | $8,400 | $13,000 |
| Average price of a gallon of gas | $1.47 | $3.14 |
Other “greatest hits” on the list, include an increase in military spending of 7.5%. That’s astronomical. Keep in mind that the U.S. was at peace before our manufactured invasion of Iraq.
We can sum up most of these statistics by observing that just about anything that would be considered progressive or good for the citizens of the U.S. (healthcare, reasonable wages, cost of living) have suffered tremendously. On the other hand, we’ve got another military disaster on our hands. Is it worth the cost?
