U.S. Politics
Bush Hides In Crawford While Economy Collapses

Breaking News: August 22, 2001 --

Social Security: Tax Cut Victim, by Toby Eglund

"Putting aside wishful thinking for political realities, the IMF believes the tax cut may be more like a disastrous $2.5 trillion. Considering that the U.S. economy is no longer in a boom cycle and projections of the budget surplus were outdated almost as soon as they were made, and that, according to the IMF, a variation of only 0.5% less in expected GDP growth each year will reduce the surplus by $1 trillion, Bush will have to either resume deficit spending, raise taxes, or raid both the Medicare and Social Security surplus." The Gully

[See, Capricorn Ingress and "Dubya" for background: U.S. Economy/Predictions]

Review Notes

1. Neptune conjoined to the USA's South Node in the second house ("the peoples' money and personal values") dissolves as water over rocks over a long period of time. Neptune transits a sign for 14 years.

2. March 4, 2004: T-Neptune will trine the USA's N-Saturn (10th house of the chart). Until that time, the U.S.'s money faucet will continue to leak out until Saturn (the limiter/the next USA president elected in that year?) staunches the flow. The year 2000 marked the Saturn return of Ronald Reagan's massive tax cut and reorganized economic policy. The Reagan administration thrust the USA into the largest deficits in its history. In recalling one of the Reagan administration's re-election slogans, "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" The answer to that question was a resounding "Yes!" -- but only for those in the top 20% of the nation's tax bracket.

Points to Check

1. Solar Arc Pluto conjoins SS Asc (6 Libra 59) in three years (2004). This synchronicity resonates critically with the current pressure on the USA's chart: T-Neptune won't meet N-Saturn by trine until 2004, the whole of Bush's first term in office.
   Further, SS's Solar Arc Ascendant is 12 Sagittarius, the degree and sign of the USA's natal Ascendant. It falls in SS's third house and won't square SS's N-Saturn until sometime in 2005 -- during the term of Bush's successor in the White House. (I think Bush will be a one-term president unless the GOP manages to steal the election from Florida again. They'll need JEB to do it. If JEB loses the governorship in 2002 to a Democrat, start dancing). Neptune is the dispositor of SS's N-Saturn (in Pisces). Whereas squares are difficult, the coming "belt tightening" may be the only way out of Bush's reckless give-aways to the rich and his dismantling of government social programs via his "dump" onto churches through his "Faith Based Initiative." (Neptune in the second house: manna from heaven vs. dollars in your wallet.)
   The USA's first experience with Pluto transiting its first house (the peoples' loss of faith in America's core beliefs/myths) will be doubly challenged from 2004 (Pluto moves to Capricorn) onwards, as the necesssary restructuring (Pluto) takes on the flavor of Capricorn's ruler, Saturn: harsh (Saturn) remedies (Pluto) mitigating Neptune's leak-out conjunction via the USA's second house South Node.

2. Progressed SS Asc: 29 Scorpio (opposite ALCYONE/fixed star of great grief). Alcyone falls in SS's 8th house of loss and separation. Saturn at 22 Taurus (the degree of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of May, 2000) Hook into the T-square mentioned below and draws us into a fixed grand square, very remiscient of the Solar Eclipse of August 1999 -- a heady mix still offloading across the world. The Bush Inauguration chart, with its fixed T-Square in the signs of Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius, also resonated with the Eclipse of 1999 and the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 2000. Add to the mix 2000's three Saturn-Uranus squares, and you've got the recipe for the shattering (Uranus) of established government programs (Saturn) via deceptive (Neptune), covert (Pluto) political agendas.

3. Progressed SS Asc in T-Square to Solar Arc South Node (11th house/29 Leo) and Solar Arc North Node (5th house/29 Aquarius). (See remarks on the Nodes above).

4. Solar Arc Neptune (24 Scorpio) in "Nodal Degree" -- SS North Node/24 Sagittarius; South Node/24 Gemini. Solar Arc Neptune squares SS's natal Venus in Aquarius in house 5 and trines SS's progressed Saturn in house 6. December 14, 2001's Solar Eclipse at 22 Sagittarius ignites the aformentioned planets and nodes at 24 degrees of the signs. I sense that this eclipse, coming so close to Christmas, will resonate strongly with the two Saturn-Pluto oppositions of August and November 2001. A shrinking Christmas (low retail sales) will make it evident to the public that Bush's tax rebate and overall tax plan was never in the nation's best interest. Saturn-Pluto brings harsh realities to bear as well as feelings of anxiety that are not easily articulated. If, in fact, the Democrats hammer Bush loudly and publicly regarding 2002's fiscal budget, it will give them political capital on the one hand, but will exacerbate the peoples' fear of the loss of security. The manner in which Democrats traverse the months of September, October and November could well backfire on the party. The GOP knows this and is counting on it. Late September through mid-October guarantees a "revisiting" of Bush's overall policies. Mercury will be retrograde at that time.

5. SS Venus is at 28 Aries by progression and 29 degrees (Nodal Degree!) by Solar Arc. SA and P-Venus oppose N-Mars in Libra; square N-Pluto in Cancer; and square N-Mercury in Capricorn. Houses 1, 4, 7, and 10 take the heat. Since these are the angular houses, what gets stressed? One's identity, one's home and family, one's relationships and one's career opportunities. In other words, the impact of T-Neptune on the USA's South Node in the second house hits every American at the very core of where meaningful life is lived. Both Venus and Mars are posited in the opposite signs of their rulership, debilitating both, thus signaling bitter battles between Bush and Congress -- Solar Arc South Node at 29 Leo/Regulus in the 11th house in square to Alcyone in the 8th house: "The King (Regulus) brings great grief (Alcyone) upon his people."

6. Solar Arc Saturn (22 Taurus/8th house) is in the same degree as May 23, 2000's Jupiter-Saturn conjunction. The next 20 years (up to 2020) when the USA meets the next Saturn-Pluto conjunction (and its next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction), marks a time of sweeping changes. Outer planet conjunctions (along with the Jupiter-Saturn cycle) will have a direct bearing on how baby boomers ultimately fare in old age). The last Saturn-Pluto conjunction in 1982 marked the commencement of the Reagan administration's economic policies. It took the USA over 10 years to bail itself out.

7. SS progressed Pluto (retrograde) is conjoined to Bush's 12th house Saturn; resides in the USA's 8th house of "Social Security" and "Medicare,"; opposes the USA's natal Pluto (27 Capricorn) in its second house of "the peoples' money"; and represents the coming of erosion of either real or perceived "security."