GOP wants return to the Bush years

GOP wants return to the Bush years

I remember when the stock market crashed, turning my 401(k) into, as the expression was back then, a 201(k). It was October of 2008, and we were coming to the end of the G.W. Bush regime. President Obama was not yet in office, and indeed had not been elected.

We had had eight disastrous years of Republican-inspired financial rule, and we paid the price, not only in terms of stock market performance, but in unemployment, loss of housing equity, and in foreign adventures that had not been paid for. I thought at the time that there was no reason to vote for a Republican ever again.

After four years with Obama as president, my 401(k) has recovered. To the question, Are you better off than you were four years ago, I can answer with a resounding: Yes. In addition, the steep increase in the unemployment rate has been halted and is starting to turn around, the housing industry is improving, and in general the nation’s financial future looks brighter.

But the Republicans haven’t learned a thing. They want to go right back to the Bush years. They still want to deregulate the banks and other financial entities, they still want to cut taxes for the very wealthy, and they still want to start a war, this time with Iran. So is there any more reason to vote Republican than there was four years ago? Clearly, the answer is: No.

Dick Page

Naperville