July 31, 2004 - There is no arguing with the new Bush campaign slogan, “Results Matter”. The White House announced its latest forecast of the deficit last week predicting that it will top $445 Billion by the end of the fiscal year. That figure is up – or down depending on your point of view – 19% larger than shortfall that that the President ran up in the last fiscal year. It is the third straight deficit under the Bush Administration and follows after the four straight years of surplus scored by Bill Clinton’s stewardship. There is no doubt that results matter.

There is another result in the news. The Department of Commerce announced that the Bush Recovery is faltering. Economic growth is stalled and slipping back. The problem, according to Commerce is that consumers are spending more and more on gasoline and less and less on the rest of their budget as their dollars are diverted to energy costs. At the same time the price of crude oil set a new record high this week. Both Exxon-Mobil and Texaco-Chevron posted record profits while the consumer was squeezed. Those are results that matter.

There are more results that matter in the news. United Airlines, operating under bankruptcy protection since 2002 is trying to get the bankruptcy judge to let it default on its $13 Billion debt to its pension funds. Delta is standing in the wings, poised to enter bankruptcy to shed its waiting to shed its pension debt if United’s play works. Employee pension plans are guaranteed by the federal government through The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The agency is already stretched thin by the 3200 pension plan defaults, Enron’s among the largest, that it is presently funding. Steven A. Kandarian, the agency’s outgoing Director, warns that the results are likely to dwarf the FDIC debacle that was faced by George H.W. Bush and add another $100 Billion to the deficits that the Bush White House is predicting through 2009. These results matter to anyone who is counting on a company pension plan to pay for prescriptions and health care when they retire.

Another result that matters in the news last week was the IRS announcement that personal income fell for the second year in a row in 2003. That has never happened before.

The results of out of control Bush deficit spending will matter most to our grandchildren who will have to pay off the debt. The results of the rapid increases in the cost of energy, the cost of prescriptions, and the cost of medical care matter most to our children in the midst of their working lives. The price of a gallon of milk for their kids is going up faster than the cost of the gallon of gas they use to get to the grocery store. The results of the impending collapse of the pension plan system will matter to us all; retirees who see their benefits shrink; their kids who will lose the investment that they earned and thought was secure; and their grandkids who will have to pay the bill. Results do matter.