This is my response to the political ”statistics” that have been floating around the Internet recently:
From: Alan Cheslow
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 1:59 PM
To: xxxxx
Subject: RE: Interesting Facts !!
A few quick thoughts…
Part 1) I haven’t seen anything that would attribute changes in consumer confidence, unemployment, home values, etc to any laws that Congress passed. If anything, much of these macroeconomic factors are driven by central policies from organizations like the Federal Reserve which is governed by a board that is appointed by the president. The last three points about home equity can be pretty closely tied to the Fed’s manipulation of interest rates under Bush.
Part 2) Yes Bush cut taxes (not as much as the email says though if you click thru to http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/22958.html), but at the expense of raising the national debt (robbing Peter to pay Paul). Take a look at the national debt under Reagan, Bush, and Clinton: http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm. Between 1978-2005 Republicans increased federal spending 12.1% and federal debt 36.4% while Democrats increased federal spending only 9.9% and federal debt only 4.2%. During the same period Republicans increased GDP only 10.7% while Democrats grew GDP 12.6% (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf)
Part 3) I don’t disagree with some of this underlying point, but I don’t trust much of the “statistics”. For example, the biggest component – “$200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages” – is attributed to a statement Lou Dobbs made about immigration (“both LEGAL and illegal” by the way) – and his statement is not attributed to any real data or report. Who knows where this number really comes from and what’s behind it (probably just racism in many cases)? A few years ago Lou Dobbs implied that immigrants brought 7,000 cases of leprosy into the US but got his data entirely wrong (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonhardt.html ). Anyway, much of this problem should be blamed on the big corporations that profit from employing illegal aliens in the first place. And finally, no matter what immigration does or does not cost, it has no effect on the more than $500B that the Iraq war has cost us so far (not to mention more than 4K dead US soldiers — not including “contractors” — and almost 100K civilian deaths). And by the way, guess who the guys at Halliburton, KBR, and Blackwater who profit from the Iraq war are voting for, contributing to, and meeting with?
Not that I’m a huge fan of Democrats – just another shade of the same color – but if this email is trying to make the point that Americans enjoy more prosperity under Republicans than Democrats, then it is just plain wrong, according to Forbes Magazine, the Washington Post, and the Center for American Progress - http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2004/prospertity_presidents.html
So there.
Alan
From: xxxxx
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 10:57 AM
To: xxxxx
Subject: FW: Interesting Facts !!
XXX received this email from a co-worker. What is your take on this?
XXX> Subject: Fw: Interesting Facts !!
> Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:20:40 -0700
> From: xxxxx
> To: xxxxx
>
> SCARY email
>
> —– Original Message —–
> From: xxxxx
> To: +Sales
> Cc: xxxxx
> Sent: Mon Apr 21 08:58:57 2008
> Subject: Interesting Facts !!
>
> Interesting Facts for consideration…….
>
>
> Vote for Change? Okay, but please do it responsibly. Please research your candidates first, no matter which party you belong to.
>
>
> This email comes in three parts:
>
>
> Part 1:
> Remember the mid-term (congressional) election in 2006?
> Thought you might like to read the following:
> A little over one year ago:
>
> 1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
> 2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
> 3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
>
> Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
>
> 1) Consumer confidence plummet;
> 2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
> 3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
> 4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
> 5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
> 6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
>
> America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
>
> Remember: it’s Congress that makes laws, not the President.
>
>
> Part 2:
>
> Taxes…Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.
> www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html>
>
> Taxes under Clinton 1999
>
> Taxes under Bush 2008
>
>
> Single making 30K: tax $8,400
>
> Single making 30K: tax $4,500
>
>
> Single making 50K: tax $14,000
>
> Single making 50K: tax $12,500
>
>
> Single making 75K: tax $23,250
>
> Single making 75K: tax $18,750
>
>
> Married making 60K: tax $16,800
>
> Married making 60K: tax $9,000
>
>
> Married making 75K: tax $21,000
>
> Married making 75K: tax $18,750
>
>
> Married making 125K: tax $38,750
>
> Married making 125K: tax $31,250
>
>
>
>
> Both Candidates Clinton and Obama have promised to return to the higher tax rates. I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider a married couple that makes a combined income of 125K rich. Doing well, yes, but not rich…..
>
>
>
>
> PART 3:
> You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much?
> Read the numbers on the cost to support illegal aliens:
>
> I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL’s for verification of all the following facts.
>
> 1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments. Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77 <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://tinyurl.com/zob77>
>
> 2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html>
>
> 3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html>
>
> 4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html>
>
> 5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
> Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html>
>
> 9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. Verify at:
> http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html>
>
> 10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that’s two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US
> Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html>
>
> 11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our southern border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from terrorist countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the southern border.
> Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://tinyurl.com/t9sht>
>
> 12. The National Policy Institute “estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.”
> Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf>
>
> 13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.
> Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm>
>
> 14. “The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million
> Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.”
> Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml <http://sslmail.intellidot.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml>
>
> The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
>
>
> Now, vote using your brain!
