President Bush, please take Dick Cheney with you when you leave the White House.

Cloaked in secrecy, Vice President Dick Cheney met today in a closed meeting with the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

“While we might not know what they talked about, the evidence is clear that the Bush-Cheney economic policies have failed North Carolina,” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“A recession is looming and it costs more to put fill our gas tanks, heat our homes, and pay for health care when illness strikes,” Meek said.

In 2001, gas was $1.37 per gallon. Now it costs $3.09 per gallon. Americans could heat their homes for as low as $1.40 per gallon. Now it costs $3.39.

Health care insurance premium costs for families have doubled from $6,230 in 2001 to $12,106 per household today.

“North Carolinians work hard to secure a better future for their children and grandchildren,” Meek said. “But the Bush-Cheney Administration has diminished that with irresponsible policies and an unquenchable thirst for debt.”

Under President Bush and the Republican Congress, a projected 10-year, $5.6 trillion surplus became a $2.4 trillion deficit. They squandered $8 trillion in six years.

Every American faces a $750-per-year Republican “debt tax” to pay just the interest on Republican debt.

Earlier this month, Republicans insisted on adding $50 billion to the nation’s credit card by borrowing from countries like China to be repaid by our children, as a condition of protecting 19 million Americans from a big tax increase.

Democrats wanted to pay for the tax relief responsibly.

We should be cutting middle-class taxes, instead of giving them to a sliver of the very wealthiest Americans. We should be giving homeowners stronger help in confronting the mortgage crisis.

We need to reverse cuts to science and research, since these are the engines of economic growth in the innovation economy.

We need to seize the clean energy revolution before other nations do, so that America is the leader in creating new technologies that reduce both the threat of global warming and our dependence on foreign oil.

We need to end the Republican neglect of our education systems, and educate the next generation of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs who will innovate and create jobs.

And most importantly we need to show Dick Cheney and Bush Republicans the door.

Sources:

Gas Prices: Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_hi..., Accessed 1/15/08

Home Heating: Energy Information Administration, http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_pe... http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/brochure/heatingoil2006/index.html

Health Care: Kaiser Study of Health Care Benefits, http://kff.org/insurance/index.cfm

Republican Debt: House Budget Committee based on OMB data, 8/2/07. Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 5/15/07; House Budget Committee, 6/27/07.