XPost: alt.politics.bush, alt.politics.usa.republican, soc.veterans   
   From: sid9x@bellsouth.net   
      
   Promises, Promises   
      
   By BOB HERBERT   
      
   Published: February 16, 2004   
   One of the main reasons for the decline in President Bush's credibility is   
   the disconnect between the rosy economic scenarios his administration keeps   
   touting and the much more dismal real-life experience of millions of   
   American families.   
      
   Mr. Bush likes to say, "America's economy is strong and getting stronger."   
   He recently boasted, "Since May 2003 we have seen the economy grow at its   
   fastest pace in nearly 20 years." He predicted that prosperity would soon   
   "reach every corner of America."   
      
   The president needs to get out more. He could visit the working men and   
   women across the state of South Carolina who have watched the factories and   
   the mills close and their jobs vanish like lights in a blackout. He could   
   chat with the people lining up at soup kitchens and food pantries from   
   Harlem to Oklahoma and beyond. He could take a tour of the Pacific Northwest   
   or Silicon Valley, listening to families that have been devastated by the   
   information technology bust and the outsourcing of high-tech jobs.   
      
   When the labor secretary, Elaine Chao, was questioned on CNN about the   
   disappointing jobs report for January (112,000 jobs were created when   
   150,000 had been anticipated), she said: "Well, the stock market is, after   
   all, the final arbiter. And the stock market was very strong this morning in   
   reaction to the news that we have just received."   
      
   She was outdone in tone-deafness just a few days later by N. Gregory Mankiw,   
   chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, who gave a thumbs   
   up to outsourcing, including the outsourcing of skilled higher-wage jobs.   
   ..."   
      
   http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/opinion/16HERB.html?hp   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)