Apparently, Democrats are up in arms over Bush's latest ad - the first attack ad from the Republicans in this political war. They are claiming that Bush has nothing to stand on, so he's unleashing the attack ads, whereas, we all know that the Democrats never attacked Bush in the debates, speeches, and commercials during the primaries. But basically, just a few things about the ad itself.

The new ad, which will begin airing on Friday in 18 battleground states, alleges that Kerry would "raise taxes by at least $900 billion" in his first 100 days in office to pay for his health care plan.

Kerry, et al. have already denied that they plan to raise taxes by that much, rather, they'll just raise taxes for the richest to pay for new plans. But Kerry has stated that he will unveil a $900 billion health care plan AND he doesn't plan to increase the deficit. So if you're going to have $900 billion in new spending and no more deficit spending, where will the money come from? You can't get $900 billion from corporations and people in higher tax brackets - you'll have to tax everyone again.

In addition to raising taxes, the narrator warns that Kerry would weaken the Patriot Act and would "delay defending America until the United Nations approved."

A couple things here. While they claim he'll weaken the Patriot Act, we all know Kerry will just spin it as "improving" the act - which, I'm actually for. I think that the government should have the authority to arrest those they believe to be terrorists, but I also think that the Patriot Act may have gone too far. As for the "delay defending America," I completely agree with the ad. We cannot sit idly by as we wait for the UN to give the go-ahead. We cannot let terrorists continue to use foreign lands such as Iraq and Afghanistan as we wait for some procedural mumbo-jumbo to pass through the UN. We must strike first to preserve our democracy - else we end up with another 9/11 or a 3/11 as was witnessed in Spain earlier today. Kerry responded with:

"What's most interesting about this new ad is what's not in it. This president can't talk about his positive vision for America, because at each turn he has put this nation on the wrong track," Kerry said in a statement.

Of course, as all economists know and even those who don't have a degree or higher education, but you can't immediately turn an economy around. There's cycles - peaks and troughs. And it takes time to go from a trough to a peak. With recent economic data, it appears that we're finally rising out of a trough and I fear that if we were to change administrations, we'd be immediately changing directions and with increased taxes and increased spending, everything would be flipped upside down. It's just not a good idea, and even though I don't agree with everything Bush has done, on a purely economical stance, he's done a good job getting the economy turned around after 9/11 and the mess Clinton left behind.

URL: Politics News Article | Reuters.com