Bush Demanding Even More Debt For U.S.

The figure above is the national debt of the United States on November 18, 2007. When this debt is divided by the number of people in the U.S., it comes out to $30,031.50 of debt for every man, woman and child in this country. Even worse, the debt is growing by $1.47 billion per day.

That's why I find it amazing that Bush is now demanding that Congress create another $80 billion of debt. He has already created more debt than any other American president ever has, and he still wants more. There seems to be no limit to his financial incompetence.

Congress is in the process of crafting a tax bill that would fix it so middle class taxpayers would not have to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) on their earnings. The AMT was created in 1969 to keep the rich from using loopholes to avoid paying any taxes at all. It was never meant to apply to the middle class.

But because of inflation in the last forty years, the AMT could hit some 20 million middle class taxpayers this year. Both Democrats and Republicans think this is unfair, and want to change the law to eliminate this burden on middle class taxpayers. Doing this would mean that about $80 billion less in taxes would be collected.

Democrats, in an effort to be financially responsible, want to make up this $80 billion by closing tax loopholes for the richest Americans. That only makes sense. Those who can afford it the most should pay their fair share of the tax burden.

But Bush and the Republicans cannot abide such a remedy. They have been cutting taxes for the richest Americans since they took office, and are not about to change that now. Of course, if the shortfall is not made up, the debt will increase and the burden will once again fall on the middle and working classes.

Republicans like to claim that Democrats are financially irresponsible, but in their zeal to protect their rich corporate buddies, it is the Republicans who are creating an ever larger financial burden for Americans. Someday, someone is going to have to pay this debt.

It is time to boot the Republican corporate lackeys out of office, and elect some financially responsible Democrats.