The economy is good? Only if you're wealthy

Productivity and profits are up, and unemployment is low, says President Bush. According to him, his tax cuts are working to bring our economy out of recession. Question is, working for whom?They're not working for people struggling to care for children on minimum wage. The Republican congressional majority killed the Democratic proposal for a modest raise to the minimum wage, despite the fact that its buying power is the lowest since the early 1970s, by including in the bill the elimination of estate taxes for millionaires and billionaires.Bush's tax cuts aren't working for seniors trying to make sense of the GOP's convoluted Medicare D.They're not working for soldiers returning from Iraq to reduced health care and no help from a bankruptcy law that refuses to recognize their service. They're not working for college students who are dropping out at an alarming rate because of 40 percent increases in tuition since Bush took office and because of higher interest rates on student loans. They're not working for the 46 million without health insurance. Evidently the economy is only going well when the Republicans want to talk tax cuts on estates and dividends that benefit the wealthy, subsidies for big business or increasing compensation for CEOs. Meanwhile, most working Americans are experiencing a lack of job opportunities, stagnant wages and vanishing benefits. We should start asking ourselves why we keep electing people who see only bad things happening when we try to improve the lot of those of us who aren't millionaires. Sally McInerney, Corbin City - Published in the Atlantic City Press, August 25, 2006