But that is exactly what they want to do!

Two items from a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll is a perfect example of something that drives me crazy. One part of the poll questioned people on how they would feel about a candidate based on several policy positions. The two policy positions that brought the highest "uncomfortable" ratings are exactly the same kinds of things that Republicans plan to do.

The issue that by far made people "very uncomfortable" (49%) was the Paul Ryan concept of "phasing out Social Security" and instead allowing workers to "invest their Social Security contributions in the stock market."

The issue that came in second (39%)on the "uncomfortable" meter was that a candidate would support the economic policies of former president George W. Bush.

The task for Democrats between now and November is to make sure that the public knows that the top two things that make them most "uncomfortable" about a candidate is exactly what most Republican candidates want to do.

ht: Think Progress

Thanks for the ‘Awful’ Bush Decade

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that Americans have a very negative view of the past decade, most of which was marked by President Bush's time in office. The poll found that 58% of people said that the decade was either "awful" or "not so good," 29% said that it was "fair" and only 12% said that it was either "good" or "great." The people that were polled also said that the country lost ground during the decade on the environment (37%), health and well being (46%), peace and national security (50%), moral values (66%) and a whopping 74% said it lost ground on economic prosperity.

Census Bureau figures that were released in September mostly supported the public's negative impression of the Bush Decade. On every major issue the Census Bureau found that the country lost ground. We lost it on median household income, poverty, childhood poverty, and lack of health insurance among other things. In comparison, the country's position in each of those categories improved during President Clinton's two terms (often dramatic improvements).

I'm proud that the State of Wisconsin twice rejected George W. Bush, but we still had our fair share of Bush backers that tried to convince us otherwise. I think of Bush's "cousin" Scott Walker, Leah Vukmir, the Republican Party of Wisconsin and so many others. I suppose a sarcastic "thanks" is in order for their contributions in promoting an awful president and helping craft an 'awful' decade. As much as some of these Bush boosters were loving him a few years ago, they couldn't run away fast enough when reality finally hit.

Although many of his prominent Wisconsin supporters have ditched him, most of them still recite his failed policies. Tax cuts for the rich being a silver bullet for everything and the massive deregulation of industry are just two of the big ones. The awful Bush Administration did plenty of both and we can clearly see where it brought us. Since I don't think that the former Bush boosters will ditch his failed policies as quickly as they ditched the man, we can only hope that Wisconsinites show the same common sense that they did in 2000 and 2004. If we didn't like the "awful" Bush Decade, then why would we promote folks that are using the same awful policy playbook?

ht: Think Progress

UPDATE: Found this because of a link at One Wisconsin Now, "Top Ten Worst Things About the Bush Decade".

Teabagger Education Project: Bushonomics an Epic Failure

Yesterday we reposted an item meant to provide a simple fact in the midst of all the teabagging madness this weekend. Since many teabaggers are claiming that they are "outraged" over our national debt, we decided to remind them that 82 percent of that debt was spent by Republican presidents. We simply don't remember such wild Astroturf movements when Republican presidents were running up the national debt. Now thanks to the release of an annual Census Bureau report we can add yet another lesson in what we are calling the Teabagger Education Project. This time it focuses on the epic failure that the Bush Economy was for average Americans.

On Thursday the Census Bureau released a report card on the well-being of the average American during the dreadful eight years of the George W. Bush administration. The report card specifically takes a look at income, poverty and access to health care. The Atlantic published a very simple summary of the data and also compared the records of Reagan, Sr. Bush and Clinton on the same categories (Clinton does the best across the board). Here are the basics on how Bushonomics "performed" for average Americans(all amounts are in inflation-adjusted 2008 dollars):

• When Bill Clinton left office after 2000, the median income was at $52,500. When Bush left office after 2008 it had fallen to $50,303, which is a decline of 4.2 percent. That makes George W. Bush the only president in recent history that presided over an income decline over two full terms.
  
• When Clinton left office in 2000, the Census counted almost 31.6 million Americans living in poverty. When Bush left office in 2008, the number of poor Americans had jumped to 39.8 million (the largest number in absolute terms since 1960.) Under Bush, the number of people in poverty increased by over 8.2 million, or 26.1 per cent. Over two-thirds of that increase occurred before the economic collapse of 2008.
  
• When Clinton left office nearly 11.6 million children lived in poverty, according to the Census. When Bush left office that number had swelled to just under 14.1 million, an increase of more than 21 per cent.
  
• When Clinton left office, the number of uninsured Americans stood at 38.4 million. By the time Bush left office that number had grown to just over 46.3 million, an increase of nearly 8 million or 20.6 per cent. (Under Bush, the share of Americans who received health insurance through their employer declined every year of his presidency-from 64.2 per cent in 2000 to 58.5 per cent in 2008.)
  

So what is the simple take away from this data? The George W. Bush administration was an epic fail, especially for the economic interests of average Americans. Most teabaggers were Bush zealots just a short time ago. Given the disaster that he left our country in, most of them have enough sense to now try and distance themselves from him. The problem is that they are still tied directly to his failed policies that put us in this awful spot in the first place. Hell, they are not just tied to them, they are still pretending that they are the answers to all of our problems. Maybe an education is not enough, maybe the teabaggers need a deliverance.

Vote on the Foul Four

One Wisconsin Now has been running its own bracketed competition that they have entitled March Badness. They have lined up many of the worst of the right wing, allowing people to vote which ones score the highest on the badness scale. Each of the losers moves on to what is now being called The Foul Four which includes: Randy Koschnick, Rose Fernandez, George W. Bush and Jody Harding. Visit the March Badness site to vote today! Just in case you need help picking the worst of the worst, take a look at the OWN News cast below.