Regressive tax policy of the Bush adminstration

There are a few hallmarks of Bush style of government: high oil prices, tax cutting, increased government budget deficit, privatization (outsourcing) of critical government functions, and abolishment of social programs. All of these policies are underlied by a singular conservative doctrine: everyone is on his/her own, euphorized as "personal responsibility", or "ownership society".

Here I want to argue that high oil price and high government budget deficit equate to regressive tax policy.

It is easy to understand that high oil price has the effect of regressive tax, in that the increased expense people spend on oil is essentially a tax they pay to, not the government, but the oil companies. This expense is a much higher percentage of the income of the poor, thus basically a regressive tax.

Then how is budget deficit equivalent to regressive tax? During the past several years, Bush had given a large tax cut, particularly to the wealthiest few. I don't mind if we can afford the tax cut. But the fact of the matter is that Bush financed the tax cut through record budget deficit. In the meanwhile, the FED is printing more and more money to meet the financing need of the government. You see, the government is running a sort of Ponzi scheme, borrowing more from the future to pay for today. The outcome of that is inflation. First what we see is housing inflation. House prices across the nation have risen to such levels that are unreachable for many middle-class Americans. Reports on last Friday indicated that record percentage of people are spending more than half of their total income on housing. Following housing inflation will be consumer products inflation. Basically the government has printed too much money, and that money is chasing after the same amount of goods produced by the economy. No one should be surprised at all to see inflation will, and in fact is going up.

Inflation has the same effect of high oil price. It represents a much higher percentage of added expense to low income people than to the wealtiest. Clearly, inflation is also equivalent to regressive tax.

I think Bush administration knows this all too well. Chaney has long pronounced that "budget deficit doesn't matter." Yes, it does not matter to the wealthy few who owns income producing assets. But for the majority of the people who have fixed income, budget deficit matters alot. Because it causes inflation and decline in people's living standards.

We have to stop the madness of this government. There is a lot at stake. Progreeive democrats, remember why you lost in 2004 (did not articulate and stick to the democratic principles), and now focus on 2008. Win back the government, for the sake of America, for the liberty of this great nation, for the democratic ideals of this great nation, and for our next generation.