What booming economy?

To the Editor: According to pundits, Henry Paulson was named the new treasury secretary in part because John Snow was ineffective in getting the public to credit President Bush for a robust economy. These same pundits express wonder at the public’s failure to be grateful for booming growth. These experts seem to ignore the fact (reported by the U.S. Census Bureau) that median family take-home pay, after adjustment for inflation, has been going down steadily since Bush took office. In other words, more Americans are earning less on Bush’s watch. Bush’s poor performance when Americans are polled on the national economy reflects that the public feels what the media seems to ignore -- i.e., more Americans are getting poorer. Lower incomes and rising health costs are pushing middle class Americans down the economic ladder. Bush’s lopsided tax cuts haven’t helped. They have benefited the most affluent, whose incomes have risen at a prodigious rate. This has raised average income, a statistic that the administration loves to tout. However, think about what this means. If average income climbs at the same time median income drops, this means more money is going to the top while more people are going to the bottom. This is not good for America. Given that more people are earning less and that we are paying more for basic necessities like health care, heat and gasoline, the majority of Americans are feeling the pinch. Spin statistics as he may, Paulson can’t obfuscate what Americans know is happening. Michael G. Busche Sussex