Editorial

Send Bush back to Texas

George Bush's war in Iraq drags on, with nearly 1,000 Americans dead, thousands maimed and possibly 10,000 Iraqis dead. Billions have gone to Dick Cheney's old firm, Halliburton, and things in Iraq don't seem to be getting much better.

Maybe they will later.

Maybe not. Here at home, it's just been reported by the U.S. Census Bureau that poverty has increased since George Bush got to the White House and started giving tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.

About 800,000 more children lived in poverty in 2003 than the year before, and that number would be higher still if poverty was properly defined.

For instance, the threshold for a family of four was $18,810, while for two people it was $12,015.

Let's see, if we divide $12,015 per year by 12 months, we get about $1,001 per month. If rent is $500 per month, that leaves $500 per month, or $125 per week, or $62.50 per person for food, gasoline (!), shoes and school supplies.

A mother and child who receive $12,020 per month, above the poverty line, are not counted.

The family of four has it better. They get just under $1,570 per month.

Maybe not. If they found a place for $570 per month, they would have $1,000 per month. About $250 per week, or, by amazing coincidence, $62.50 per person for food, gasoline (!!) and school supplies.

If they got another 30 bucks per month, 19¢ per hour, and boosted themselves to $1,600 per month, they are above the poverty line and not counted.

Ever wonder how many working poor are not counted? Well, look around. Someone earning $10 per hour, eight hours a day, five days a week, earns that same $1,600 per month. Before deductions.

Maybe that 19 cents will buy health insurance.

Maybe not. Nearly 45 million people lacked health insurance in 2003, or 15.6 percent of the population. That's up from 43.5 million in 2002, or 15.2 percent.

There is good news: It was a smaller increase than in the two previous years, when George Bush took office, though it is still going up.

So, in the last four years, we have more people in poverty, more people without health insurance, two wars being fought -- the expensive one in Iraq a war of choice that will take a generation to pay for regardless of outcome and tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent of Americans. Gasoline over $2 per gallon.

By the way, roads and schools aren't getting any better, either.

In the meantime, Bush's cronies at Enron are ripping off "grandmothers in California" (their words), drug companies are raiding Medicare and Dick Cheney's old firm, Halliburton, is making billions overcharging the U.S. military in Iraq. Bush political operatives are manipulating hate and bitterness over Vietnam in a manner John McCain calls "dishonest and dishonorable."

As George Bush likes to say, "results matter."

Maybe not. By that standard, he goes back to Texas.