To the editor:

This week in review. Job growth stalls. Stock market hits low for the year. My pension report shows loss of $400 for the year. Regional unemployment forÝEast Central Minnesota highest in the state. National debt highest since Reagan, accumulating at $1.7B per day or more. Battle for Iraq continues; past week was one of the bloodiest this year and more Americans die. Terror alert is at orange. Four years ago we were not at war, there was a surplus, unemployment was less than 3 percent, there were tax cuts without deficit, you felt safe traveling to most places in the world - when we had a Democratic administration in the White House. Bush pushed a record tax cut for the rich and a modest cut for others. We were attacked on our homeland. Bush lied to us about why should attack Iraq rather than focus on the Al-Qaida in Afghanistan. Bush told us we won the war in Iraq, but failed to mention that we didnít win the peace, find weapons of mass destruction or stop terrorism. This year Bush lied to the American people again. He told us that we were in the midst of an economic recovery. Yet for the first time since the depression, the income of American workers dropped two years in a row. There continues to be a net loss of manufacturing jobs and a net loss of close to one million total jobs.ÝThink of what the unemployment would be like if there wasnít a war going on that has taken people out of the labor force and given the defense industries win-fall profits on the blood of our soldiers, disproportionately people of color and the poor. Havenít felt enough pain or experienced enough lies from Bush? Just wait for the impact of the Central American Free Trade Agreement; more lost jobs, more trade deficit, more poverty, except for Bushís base, the elite and the rich. Our unions and the working people of Central America asked for fair trade, not just free trade. What they gotÝbenefits a few and at the expense of those who produce or used to produce trade goods. Look at Bushís political ads. He attacks Kerryís war record in Vietnam where he put hisÝlife on the line for his crew, while Bush avoided the military draft and was paid when he didnít even show up for duty. And look at Bushís attack dogs, Norm Coleman being a prime example, the ultimate flip-flopper, accusing Kerry for flip-flopping on Iraq, when Kerry voted to support the President after 9-11, but then withdrew that support when he realized that Bush had lied. Colemanís logic, all is fair in politics and war.

Now I ask you, what is more immoral, Clintonís lies or Bushís lies that have resulted in 1,000 unnecessary American deaths, the deaths of 10,000s of Iraqi civilians, a huge national debt that our children will have to pay, the undoing of laws to protect the environment, and worse, cuts in funding to the most vulnerable in society (the latest example being cuts to Section 8 housing funding)?
Ý
Robert G. Walz
North Branch

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