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Categories: Economic Fairness, Children and Family Issues, Jobs and Economy, Tax Fairness, One Wisconsin Now - The "tOWN Hall"
The Bush economy has long been a disaster for working people but has only recently started to affect the very wealthy. It has been an economy of massive tax cuts for the wealthiest, endless loopholes and handouts to the largest corporations, while charging everything to our national credit card. While Senator John McCain has declared that “the fundamentals of the economy are very strong,” reality is showing that he couldn’t be more wrong if he tried.
Just last week, we learned that the jobless rate has jumped in what is the biggest rise since 1986. This week, a study revealed that childhood poverty rates have risen both nationally and in our state. Nationally, there has been an increase of 1 million children living in poverty. The percentage of children living in poverty in Wisconsin has jumped from 12 percent to 15 percent since 2000. That amounts to an increase of almost 200,000 more children living in poverty. Much of the increase in childhood poverty is directly tied to the loss of jobs during this Bush economy. Sadly, this is not likely the end of these kinds of depressing statistics.
Conservatives like to praise the magic of “the market” when discussing anything about the economy. Hopefully they will finally understand what progressives have been saying for years. The Bush approach of tax cuts for the rich and hand outs to corporations has been “market tested” and has proven itself to be a complete economic disaster.
