BOTH SIDES NOW by l.t. Dravis: SHOULDN’T Bush and company just go away next Wednesday?

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sunday, November 2, 2008 – WHO WANTS GEORGE W. BUSH, DICK CHENEY, OR THE BUSH CABINET TO HANG AROUND AFTER TUESDAY? Bush has been a complete bust as President; his level of incompetence is unprecedented, his total lack of commitment to serving the real needs of real Americans is well-known, and his complete inability to communicate with the American people makes him totally useless.

Dick Cheney, by any standard, has been a total waste. He has no credibility, no public support, and has not, in any way, done anything in eight years to improve the lives of Americans. A more useless human being has probably never existed within the Washington beltway.

Let’s face it; George W. Bush (who gets $400,000.00 a year) and his puppet master, Dick Cheney ($221,100.00 a year), offer nothing, except an eight year history of deceit, incompetence, lack of direction, and abject failure, to the people of this country.

So, why would we want either of these boobs to hang around after Tuesday?

Okay . . . so what about anyone else in the Bush administration?

Any help there?

Not hardly.

Except for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, not one of Bush’s cabinet secretaries (each of whom costs taxpayers $191,300.00 each and every year) has done anything to help the nation cope with the current economic crisis.

Because Secretary of the Treasury Paulson is actually doing something to help the economy, he can stay after Tuesday. Whether you agree – or not – with the government ‘bailout’ of financial institutions, Congress authorized the ‘bailout’ and Paulson’s actually working at it . . . something Bush, Cheney, and their people are not known for.

Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman hasn’t said anything about how he plans to use any portion of the $25 billion taxpayer dollars he got in 2008 to reduce exorbitant fuel costs that have crippled our economy and killed so many small businesses and cost thousands upon thousands of jobs. This is a man who said, “Under President Bush’s leadership, this budget” (the 2008 budget) “builds on our commitment to strengthen our nation’s energy security by diversifying our energy resources and reducing our reliance on foreign sources of energy.” Bodman made that statement a year and a half ago – after he spent $49 billion in 2007 and 2008 – and, yet the nation can’t see where he’s done anything to diversify energy resources or reduce our reliance on foreign sources of energy. So, why would anyone believe Bodman could or would direct his department to make any effort whatsoever to help turn our economy around? In any case, if Secretary Bodman actually cared about helping to revitalize the economy, one would think he would have already made an effort to do so.

Where has Department of Labor Secretary Elaine Chao been since the economic collapse? In 2008, she spent 50 billion taxpayer dollars this year and used 17,000 employees to run her department, a department that is supposed to “foster and promote the welfare of the job seekers, wage earners, and retirees of the United States by improving their working conditions, advancing their opportunities for profitable employment, protecting their retirement and health care benefits, and helping employers find workers” . . . yet, we know absolutely nothing about what she’s doing with the $50 billion to help Americans stay in their jobs, get new jobs, and maintain health care coverage for themselves or their families. If Secretary Chao cared about the American worker, wouldn’t she use her economic and political power to help more people hang on to more jobs?

What has Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff done to streamline his department’s $46.4 billion dollar budget and help reduce the federal deficit? What has Chertoff done to improve economic opportunities for Homeland Security contractors and employees? What is Secretary Chertoff’s plan to utilize his department’s human, financial, and infrastructure resources to help rebuild and revitalize our economy? We don’t know . . . because we haven’t heard anything from him.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates hasn’t said a word about where his department stands on the economic crisis. Has Secretary Gates considered how the economy might improve if he directed National Guard and Reserve units to expedite rebuilding in New Orleans and other areas of the country that have been devastated by natural disasters? If Secretary Gates is truly interested in supporting our gallant troops serving around the world, why hasn’t he announced a plan to work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to come up with innovative ways to transition returning veterans into good-paying jobs in the public and private sectors?

Where has Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez been? His department employs 41,000 people and will take $6.5 billion out of the pockets of taxpayers this year. According to it’s Mission Statement, the Commerce Department is supposed to work with other Government agencies to create national policy, through the President’s Cabinet to increase international trade, strengthen the international economic position of the United States, promote progressive domestic business policies and growth, and assist communities, individuals, and states with economic progress. So, why hasn’t Secretary Gutierrez made a public commitment to use every resource at his disposal to create more economic opportunity for small, medium, and large businesses throughout the country? Doesn’t Secretary Gutierrez care? Or is he just incompetent?

With a budget of $707 billion and 64,000 employees, Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt spends more money than even the Defense Department ($647 billion) . . . in fact he controls nearly one-fourth of all the money spent by the Federal Government. What has Secretary Leavitt done with any of the $700 billion he received from the taxpayers this year to help Americans who’ve lost their jobs to retain health insurance? If Secretary Leavitt has done anything at all to reduce his operating budget to help reduce our $500 billion deficit this year, he hasn’t bothered to tell us about it. Has Leavitt made every effort to make sure that Americans who’ve lost their jobs and are about to lose their jobs in the most serious economic crisis to hit the nation since the Great Depression have access to continuing health care for themselves and their families? If so, why don’t we know about his efforts?

How about Attorney General Michael Mukasey? The Department of Justice cost taxpayers $26 Billion in 2008 and employs multiple thousands of people in all sorts of jobs all across the nation. So, where does the Attorney General stand on the economic crisis? Why hasn’t he stepped up to reassure us that the Department of Justice will protect our investments in Wall Street and in Main Street as well? Why hasn’t Mukasey come up with any initiatives to introduce, implement, and enforce new and more effective oversight regulations for the financial services industry?

Dr. James Peake, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, spent $84 billion in taxpayer money this year and we have no idea whether he has any interest cutting his department’s operating costs to help reduce the federal deficit. There’s also been no word from Dr. Peake about what he intends to do to make sure returning veterans can find good jobs in a declining economy. If he has a plan to provide good-paying, secure jobs with health and retirement benefits to returning veterans in this economy, why hasn’t he told us about it?

Where does Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters stand on the economic recovery? Is she for or against using the resources the taxpayers have given her to help improve economic conditions? She has 55,000 employees who work for 14 separate departments (from the Federal Aviation Administration to the Federal Railroad Administration to the Office of the Secretary) and she spent $67 billion this year alone. What has Secretary Peters done to invest in the transportation infrastructure to create new jobs? What has Secretary Peters done to streamline her 14 agencies to cut expenditures and return taxpayer dollars to the treasury? We don’t know . . . because we haven’t heard anything from her.

Secretary Condoleeza Rice has demonstrated a level of incompetence that leaves her completely out of any solution-making process, foreign or domestic. She has failed to make any progress in the war of terrorism. She has failed to make any meaningful progress in the Middle East. In terms of assisting the nation to recover from the current economic emergency, Secretary Rice has consistently failed to build or strengthen relationships with our allies around the world, thereby failing to create or develop bilateral import/export economic protections for our economy. Her record proves she would be of no use whatsoever . . . especially when it comes to managing the international implications behind our current economic crisis.

What has Education Secretary Margaret Sellings done to mobilize her department to help the people of America get through the current economic crisis? Out of the $66 billion she spent in 2008, she received $447 million for administrative support alone. How many of those taxpayer dollars has Secretary Sellings directed to create new investments to stimulate the economy? Why hasn’t Secretary Sellings been a leader in introducing initiatives to rebuild and revitalize schools across the nation . . . from inner cities to rural communities to the suburbs . . . to not only improve educational opportunities for our children but to also create new, good-paying jobs for Americans who need them?

Given the dismal history of these Cabinet Secretaries, why would we want to waste another taxpayer dollar on any of them?

There isn’t a winner in the bunch and Americans have no reason to limp along for more than two and a half months between Election Day and inauguration day with Bush, Cheney, and the rest of their incompetents.

We’ll want to rely on the President-Elect, the Vice-President-Elect, and their advisors for the critical leadership (guidance and reassurance) the nation so desperately needs . . . starting Wednesday morning.

Won’t we?

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, Email me at ltdassociates@msn.com (goes right to my desk) and since I personally answer every Email, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

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Labels: Incompetence