The morning headlines scream about the Miami based terrorist plot to take down the Sears Tower; and hours later, directly across the street from the tower, Vice President Richard Cheney takes the podium at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to speak on the state of the economy.
The economy, Cheney says, “Is larger and stronger than ever before,” and he had the numbers to prove it. During the last two years, there have been 5.3 million new jobs created, unemployment stands at 4.6% and productivity is up as well. Hourly compensation is up 5%, Gross Domestic Product grew 5.3% in the first quarter and tax revenues were up 15% in 2005 and are projected to be up 10% in 2006. "As a result of this new revenue,” Cheney say, “we are on schedule to meet the President's goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009."
And all of this, not despite, but because of President George W. Bush’s historic tax cuts, which put him in league with the other great tax cutters, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. And if that wasn’t enough, Cheney threatened that “It’s time to put the death tax on the road to extinction.”
Cheney briefly made a case for the Presidential line-item veto, which would help the administration to “be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” giving them the tool necessary to slash back pork barrel spending. And warned about raising entitlements; outsourcing and innovation.
At no time during the Vice President’s speech did he address the two topics most on people’s minds: Inflation or interest rate hikes.
Read the speech
