Republicans Anonymous

Consider the following statement as reported by the BBC:

Treasury spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters: "Our policy is for a strong dollar and we believe currencies should be set in open and competitive markets..."

Alas, "open and competitive markets" won't result in a "strong dollar" while the US economy continues running up massive trade and fiscal deficits. This is doubly true when Bush Administration policies call for both massive spending increases and tax cuts.

With Bush, it is hard to tell where his fantasy world ends and his lying starts. Regardless, it seems clear the US Government will do nothing to stop the dollar's fall other than issue press releases.

What this means, folks, is massive across-the-board price increases in all imported goods - like oil. This will create a crisis, probably in 2005, which Bush will try and blame on Democratic obstructionists in the Senate blocking his Social Security destruction (er, I mean reform) policies.

This may well be Bush's plan - create an intentional crisis in 2005 and have Faux News lead a compliant media in telling the "red states" we must (blindly) follow the President's "Plan" to avoid total ruin. After all, the "tax and spend" Democrats would only make things worse. If FDR's New Deal* hadn't saddled us with massive Social Security "Pyramid Scheme" payments, we'd be fine now!

*Remember, Karl Rove always starts by attacking his opponents' strengths - blaming the Bush Depression on FDR's New Deal using lies and distortion is about his speed.)

In Part 1, we saw Reality starts with a body slam to the dollar.

Bush countered with a "belief in a strong dollar" followed by proposed Social Security changes requiring massive additional borrowing. The New York Times reports:

The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts.
...
The White House says it has made no decisions about how to pay for establishing the accounts, and among Republicans on Capitol Hill there are divergent opinions about how much borrowing would be prudent at a time when the government is running large budget deficits. Many Democrats say that the costs associated with setting up personal accounts just make Social Security's financial problems worse, and that the United States can scarcely afford to add to its rapidly growing national debt.
...
"Anybody who thinks borrowing money for the transition to personal accounts is going to solve the problem of the long-term solvency of Social Security doesn't understand the size of the problem," said Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over the retirement system.

Mr. Grassley said Congress would also have to put benefit reductions and tax increases on the table, in part to hold down the need for borrowing and in part to assure that any changes restore Social Security's long-term financial stability.

What happens when the Government is bankrupt, the stock market crashes, and the Bay Boomers find themselves on the street?

Consider printing this article and posting it at work.

Heart risk 'of working when ill'
(From BBC World News)
Staff who struggle into work when they are ill risk potentially shortening their lives, researchers believe.

Some workers who do not take time off when ill had twice the rate of heart disease, the 10-year study of 10,000 civil servants showed.

The University College London team found that even working with a common cold can be harmful.

The study said it was the stress from working when ill which caused the risk of heart disease.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, the head of the study, said workers did not realise the damage they were doing.

"So many people force themselves into work when they are not well and have little knowledge of the consequences.