South Florida Sun-Sentinel: Jeb not Satan, but ...

[seafan]

Jeb not Satan, but ...

Opinion: South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 2, 2008

Speaking from America's left-of-left, I have never said that the sons of Bush were spawned by Satan. I attribute their unmitigated failures to their trying to disavow (what the public perceived to be) their father's DNA: wimp genes. He said, "Read my lips: No new taxes," then was man enough to raise them, knowing he would pay a price for doing what was good for the nation. Sadly, his sons equate never changing their minds with being macho and doing right with weakness.

So Jeb's pathological insistence upon "no new taxes" and lowering taxes has turned Florida into a Third World economy. He robbed the middle class and the poor to give $20 billion in tax cuts to corporations and the rich. Now, "quality of life" for average Floridians is an oxymoron. Jeb-defenders damn him with faint praise: that Florida's economy is tanking, but not as badly as in other states. Some legacy! Time will tell.

In the meantime, Jeb's policies had nothing to do with creating our recent economic boom, but everything to do with exacerbating the current bust. His tax giveaways were only possible because money was pouring into the state treasury from the housing bubble, which was only made possible by Alan Greenspan keeping interest rates artificially low to pump up the economy to offset the drain of the Iraq war. Now, the state's running on empty.

Privatization efforts haven't saved taxpayers a proverbial dime. Instead, thanks to Jeb's gutting of state government, Florida can't afford to maintain its infrastructure and has considered privatizing toll roads to pay the costs. Rather than raise taxes, we are now funding a lion's share of education through gambling.

.....

The U.S. Department of Education reports that only 33.6 percent of Florida schools make adequate yearly progress and only 66.4 percent of high school freshmen graduated on time in 2004.

Correction: There may be a touch of Satan in that gene pool after all.

Florida will be digging out of Jeb's colossal mess for years to come.


After 8 miserable, backbiting years of Jeb Bush, this is one individual that we do not want anywhere NEAR our White House.