Tone-deaf economic policy

Friday, June 6, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

Once again, President Bush is promoting his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, despite the fact that his nation is at war, the deficit is growing, its housing market has tanked and people are choosing between buying gasoline and food.

Bush stumped for the cuts Monday, the five-year anniversary of his signing of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003. The law, which lowered tax rates on capital gains and dividends, is set to expire in 2010.

After meeting with the Council of Economic Advisers, the Associated Press reported, Bush said the “best way to deal with uncertainty is to let people keep more of their money.” Bush said Congress should make his cuts permanent because they “have been an engine for economic vitality.”

Whose economic vitality? The nation is beset with rising unemployment, stagnant wages, rising food and energy costs, and a home mortgage crisis of epic proportions. USA Today reported last month that about 27.5 million Americans rely on government aid to put food on their tables — a number experts predict will continue to rise.

And as millions of rank-and-file Americans struggle to make ends meet at home, tens of thousands of others are overseas fighting Bush’s Iraq war, which has been a five-year fiasco.

Is it any wonder that congressional Democrats have no interest in renewing tax cuts that apply to only the wealthiest of the wealthy? Bush has some nerve to keep pressing for them.

Edward Lazear, chairman of the president’s Economic Advisory Council, said allowing the cuts to expire will amount to a tax increase for those affected, and tax increases in a sluggish economy aren’t good policy. “We can’t ignore the reality, which is that we are in a slow-growth period right now,” Lazear said this week.

The Bush administration has become quite adept, however, at ignoring reality, particularly the plight of millions of Americans who are worried about being able to adequately feed and house their families.