Hillary May Dump Alfred

In her "Alfred E. Newman" speech the other day, Hillary attacked the President's handling of the economy:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton criticised President George W. Bush's attitude to the hard issues facing the country, comparing him with Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Newman and his catchphrase - "What, me worry?".

The Democrat senator from New York accused Mr Bush of damaging the economy by overspending while giving tax cuts to the rich, depriving soldiers of equipment to fight the war in Iraq and of cutting funding for scientific research.

"I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Newman is in charge in Washington," the former first lady said.

The Senator from New York may want to read her hometown paper this morning:

For the first time since President Bush took office, an unexpected leap in tax revenue is about to shrink the federal budget deficit this year, by nearly $100 billion.

On Wednesday, White House officials plan to announce that the deficit for the 2005 fiscal year, which ends in September, will be far smaller than the $427 billion they estimated in February.

Mr. Bush plans to hail the improvement at a cabinet meeting and to cite it as validation of his argument that tax cuts would stimulate the economy and ultimately help pay for themselves.

The jump in the economy is huge: Individual income up by 17.6 percent, corporate income up by a whopping 40.8 percent. The opposition will try to ignore this good news and will focus on this:

Most of the increase in individual tax receipts appears to have come from higher stock market gains and the business income of relatively wealthy taxpayers. The biggest jump was not from taxes withheld from salaries but from quarterly payments on investment gains and business earnings, which were up 20 percent this year.

Bush, friend of the rich, right? Wrong. Bush, foe of taxes, friend of anyone who makes a living. I venture to say that when the paragraph above is picked apart, we'll find, first, that "relatively wealthy taxpayers" will turn out to mean just normal folks, not the polo pony set. And unless I'm wrong, businesses that have their earnings jump need people to hire.

That's what's happened at our company. We're having our best year in a long, long time and we've hired three and are looking for two more. Send your resume to Cheat-Seeking Missiles with a cc to Hillary.