MOVE ALONG. NOTHING TO SEE HERE.

While everyone in Congress, the media and much of the public is in a tizzy about the Dubai Ports World deal [perhaps with good reason considering the Bush administrations historic use of the “Just trust us” ploy along with the UAE’s $100 million donation to Katrina relief], the Federal Reserve’s “Survey of Consumer Finances” seems to have been barely noticed. Average family incomes are down for the first time since the 1989-92 report [coincidence that Bush Sr. was in office for that period as well?].

But wait… [comes the cry from the White House] The economy is in great shape! American families are doing better than ever!

Or so the Bush administration would have us believe. Today’s report is yet another condemnation of trickle-down economics. While in a vacuum it should work, more money in the hands of corporations theoretically would be re-invested, more money maintained by the wealthy should be returned to the economy through increased spending and investment. But alas… this supposedly conservative policy forgets much of humanities seemingly infinite capacity for acquisition, the desire to have more and more, in short the hoarding principle.

And it gets worse. These drops affected the poorest 40% of families while those at the top saw gains. The trickle has in fact been damned up, much like the original incarnation of Reaganomics. Worse still… the income of minority families was stuck at about 60% of white families. This following the news that Americans as a whole actually saw a reduction in their personal savings last year only emphasizing how inadequate republican economic policy is to providing actual opportunity for the vast majority of the country.

But wait… [comes the cry again] Unemployment is down.

Except that the percentage of families living below the poverty level has been rising steadily since reaching its lowest-point in 2000 [coincidence again that this number also rose during Bush Sr.’s administration, See the Statistical Abstract of the United States]. And the recent report that 36% of people eating at soup kitchens/food banks/shelters are from households where at least one person had a job.

And we could go on.

So… what do we do? Step one: we need new leaders in Congress [I suggest voting Democrat]. Step Two: demand that the Congress block the Bush administrations attempts to highjack the economy and consolidate wealth in the hands of a few, repeal and/or discontinue the Republican tax hand-outs and invest in new [green]industry that will create real jobs instead of relegating more and more Americans to the retail world which is unable to provide a living wage [see Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich].

But really, I am not an economist, nor do I play one on TV, but it seems entirely evident that there is a radical disconnect between the rhetoric of the Bush administration and the reality of the American economy. My question is why aren’t we screaming out loud about this and demanding Congress to impose some over-site on the direction we are going?