Bush's Legacy: The poor

Via Skimple:

The Bush Legacy: America is 30 percent poorer. The dollar's purchasing power against 26 other currencies has plunged by more than 30 percent (WSJ):

On Thursday, the dollar sank to a new record low against the euro, deepening a six-year slide in which it has fallen more than 40% versus the European currency and more than 20% against a broader basket of currencies. In late trading in New York, one euro fetched about $1.52, just two days after it surged through the symbolically important level of $1.50. [...]

And that's not all:

Millions of the poor are getting poorer and the gap between rich and poor is widening. According to the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report 2003, “more than 50 nations grew poorer over the past decade”. A UNICEF study in 2000 said: "A new face of 'apartheid' seems to be spreading across the globe, as millions of people live in wretched conditions side-by-side with those who enjoy unprecedented prosperity."


Of all high-income nations, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income, with over 30 per cent of income in the hands of the richest 10 per cent and only 1.8 per cent going to the poorest 10 per cent.


In 2001 the average annual pay of US CEOs topped $11 million-some 350 times as much as the average US factory worker (who earned, on average $31,260).

Back in college, Georgie had his agenda clear:

In 1973, as the oil and energy crisis raged, Tsurumi led a discussion on whether government should assist retirees and other people on fixed incomes with heating costs. Bush, he recalled, "made this ridiculous statement and when I asked him to explain, he said, 'The government doesn't have to help poor people -- because they are lazy.' I said, 'Well, could you explain that assumption?' Not only could he not explain it, he started backtracking on it, saying, 'No, I didn't say that.'"