It's the Economy, Stupid

It's always something! If it's not one thing, it's another!
--Roseanne Roseannadanna, SNL

GHWB (41) kicked Saddam's ass, and Bill Clinton kicked Bush's, with the slogan: It's the Economy, Stupid! Well, it's still the economy, but the American citizenry hired on Sheriff Bush to secure the country, and what did we get? An ass-kickin', nation-buildin' farrago that ignores the requirements of being America's leader.

America needs an attendant president, independent of Iraq and Afghanistan. Those countries should get their own presidents; I for one am tired of my president pretending he's the leader of these crummy little countries who are bleeding America dry.

We used to have a saying, "What's good for GM is good for America." Recent news on the ascendance of the Asian automakers gives the lie to that motto.

"Toyota's U.S. sales jumped 11.7 percent in March compared with a year ago, boosted by record hybrid sales and strong overall car sales." Fellow Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan also posted solid gains. "GM and DaimlerChrysler's sales (fell) about 4 percent each, and Ford post(ed) a 9 percent drop" [Toyota's Sales Jump, While GM, Ford, Fall.]

What will happen to these autoworkers when the foreign competition totally destroys the Detroit product? This issue is more important to America's survival than the issues being battled in Baghdad.

Adding to the cheery Spring economic picture, we hear "U.S. Jobless Claims are on the Rise'':

''Newly laid-off workers signed up for unemployment benefits at a faster pace last week as companies try to cope with sluggish growth in the economy.

Although the increase left jobless claims at their highest level since the beginning of March, the report suggested that the labor market is holding up fairly well to strains from the troubled housing market and struggles faced by the automotive industry and other manufacturers.''

''In other encouraging news, the number of people continuing to collect unemployment benefits dropped 25,000 to 2.49 million for the work week ended March 24, the most recent period for which this information is available. That was the lowest since late January.''

Imagine 2.49 million people collecting unemployment benefits, then add in the chronically unemployed not eligible for benefits and underemployed, and what do you get? You get 2.5 million+ Americans needing a government and President focused on domestic economic issues, rather than elective phony wars.

On the bright side, one economic problem the U.S. does not suffer is swelling amounts of money in the banking system.

In "China Tightens Credit, Hopes to Avoid Crisis," we read, " Economists expect similar (bank) reserve increases once every quarter this year to compensate for the swelling amount of money in the banking system amid multi-billion dollar export surpluses." It is further worth noting that China recently surpassed that U.S. as the chief trading partner of the E.U.

One can only ask: What would happen to the U.S. economy if China stopped trading with the U.S.? It is obvious to this unsophisticated Ranger that China has us by the short and curlies. And in Baghdad, the beat goes on.