I wish i was better at economics, but can I just ask silly anecdotal question...is it just me or does my dollar buy less than it did a couple years ago, im not seeing any benefit of this market boom, and how exactly is a debt not just a defered tax increase?

It's entirely possible for an individual to do worse during an economic boom. The numbers given are the average and in an average some go up and some still go down. But on the whole more people do better than worse.

What you have to do is find what you're doing wrong and fix it. It's certainly not Bush's fault if you don't continue your education to better your chances of getting a promotion and if you don't switch to compact fluorecent lights it's not Bush's fault that your electric bill is so high. Those who do the best during economic booms (and busts, for that matter) don't sit around waiting to be handed the good life.

so what you're saying is that the working poor are just a product of their own stupidity...

now can you define "good life" for me, does not having to decide between getting groceries and paying for gas factor into that, what about inflation moving upward faster than real wages, despite rising productivity, I don't think corporations are investing in US, not the other way around.

This entry is classic "cherry picking." Bloomberg, not exactly a left wing outfit, also quotes in THIS ARTICLE:

"Total compensation for Americans fell to 65.4 percent of national income in 2005, down from 66.2 percent in 2001, Federal Reserve figures show. At the same time, corporate profits rose to 12.3 percent of national income, up from 8.5 percent in the year Bush took office.

`From middle incomes down, there has been very little gain,'' says Robert Solow, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who won the 1987 Nobel Prize in economics. `No wonder they feel they're not sharing in this prosperity.' "

AND

"'Almost all the benefits of productivity growth have gone to firms, and very little to workers,' says Harvard University economist Jeffrey Frankel"

AND

"As for Bush's tax cuts, Treasury Department figures show that as the economy recovered from the 2001 recession, federal revenue fell 6.9 percent in fiscal 2002 to $1.85 trillion and dropped again in fiscal 2003. In the third quarter of 2003 -- the strongest three months of economic growth in the Bush presidency -- revenue fell 4.9 percent to $430 billion from the same quarter a year earlier."

AND

"Since the last recession ended in November 2001, the U.S. has added a net 4.35 million jobs, or an average of 82,000 a month, according to the Labor Department. That's less than half the 9.57 million jobs, or 181,000 a month on average, created in the same period of time after the previous recession ended in April 1991."

That would mean twice as many jobs were created durign the Clinton administration.

How do you like THEM cherries?

Personally, it ticks me off to no end when I keep hearing "Oh, the economy is great. It's great" WHOSE ECONOMY? According to Bloomberg, not the "middle incomes down."

And congressive, when your party decides to tax the "wealthy" how is that going to help us in the middle class when I get a higher tax bill? You see, the Democrats idea of "wealthy" is based on some fairyland definition. $100K in California is MIDDLE CLASS. $100K in Arkansas may be wealthy. I'd like to know how I'm going to be treated in California and I'll bet dollars to doughnuts they (the dimwits) are going to raise me taxes.

That will HURT this middle class guy.

By the way...talk about cherry picking. You mentioned this article. How about you go through the last 12 months of economic news and there is plenty of great information about who it is helping and it's not just firms. The job market right now is fantastic. Do you think that happens by itself?

"I wish i was better at economics, but can I just ask silly anecdotal question...is it just me or does my dollar buy less than it did a couple years ago, im not seeing any benefit of this market boom, and how exactly is a debt not just a defered tax increase?"

3rd Eye, that all depends what it is that you are buying. Your dollar may buy you more of some product and less of another (gas). That will fluctuate.

Personally, I'm seeing a benefit of this market boom just by the growth of jobs. It gives workers leverage right now because people are leaving left and right for other gigs. To "stay" at your current place, employers are willing to give extra coinage.

War, I "cherry picked" the Bloomberg article because it came out TODAY from a Republican-friendly publisher, not last week/month/year/millenium.

You apparently missed the "half as many jobs created" part. There is no adjustment for inflation qualifier either, meaning there are more job seekers now simply because there are millions more people in this country now than in 1991, but with less than half the jobs created under Clinton, it's a loss-loss any way you slice it.

And you apparently missed that compensation for workers fell while corporate loot rose as a percentage of all income in the last five years. That's not "extra coinage" for workers.

As for that taxademaphobia, Bush has already raised taxes on pre-college age kids by upwards of thirty percent, while dropping it on millionaires, while any tax cut at this point is financial suicide.

Let's say you take your credit card to the ATM and withdraw your credit limit of $10K. Are you excited because now you have $10K in your pocket? Don't you realize it's gotta be paid back with interest?

That is exactly the effect of a tax cut during a time of record deficits. It's all borrowed money. With Bush's drive to make his rich-guy tax cuts permanent, who's gonna pay off the debt?

I've heard right wingers say this fabulous growing economy will pay off the debt, but according to Bloomberg:

"In the third quarter of 2003 -- the strongest three months of economic growth in the Bush presidency -- [tax] revenue fell 4.9 percent to $430 billion from the same quarter a year earlier."

Bush spends like a drunken sailor then reduces tax revenue. Does this make sense to conservatives?

Manufacturing Profits Up!

Thank God for China, India, Mexico and cheap labor everywhere!!!

With Bush's guest worker program we won't even have to outsource jobs anymore, we can import poor workers who will do American jobs for alot less money and they come ready made with no rights anyway because, well....they're illegal!!!

Three cheers for corporate profits!!!