Same old, same old. For the 7th and thankfully last time, the George W. Bush 'budget' takes from the poor and gives to the rich and undeserving. Reverse Robin Hood. No surprise there. Three trillion dollars. Yes, 'T' trillion. Of course, it can't pay for itself so why is it called a 'budget?'
For the CEO's and other wealthy Bush contributors he has more gifts to dole out: tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts. Permanent, he says. Reverse Robin Hood indeed!
Alas, and not unexpected, Mr. Bush needs to 'pay' for those gifts to the wealthy and so he cuts programs for the poor, disabled, and elderly. After all, these folks are clearly expendable and not worthy to sit at the banquet table. Don't you love to see 'compassionate conservatism' in action?
Besides the wealthiest Americans, Mr. Bush has more goodies to give to the Pentagon, specifically a check for $515 billion, a 7% increase. I suppose that is to protect us from [insert name] because [name] has amassed a great military force and [name] want to invade our nation. No doubt some readers will be surprised to learn that there is no other nation in the world able to attack us, but they will nonetheless support this gift to the Pentagon.
Well, that's the good news from this $3 trillion expenditure. Now for the rest of the story. It seems that Mr. Bush, MBA, Harvard, has included only $70 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Poor arithmetic, Mr. Bush. They are expected to cost $200 billion, but hopefully nobody will notice that little accounting error.
If there are tax cuts and increased spending, Economics 101 class teaches us: you're screwed! I think it is called borrow and spend. Borrow and spend Republicans or tax and spend Democrats? Who took Accounting 202?
Trimming the fat. Butchers do it, so why not Mr. Bush? Let's see, what is it that the American citizens don't really need? How about education! Dumbed-down ain't all bad and much easier to control. He hopes to eliminate 151 education programs. He feels that if he skirted being educated so can the rest of us.
He has his trimming knife out and is ready to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs, so-called entitlements. 'Entitlements' sound like rich folk stuff, like the gifts he wants to give to the wealthy folks, the tax-cut people. Republicans generally say the word with disdain, as if the citizens actually aren't 'entitled' to the benefits. After all, they put money into it all of their lives; it really isn't a give-away: it's their own money, for christ's sake. But you know how the GOP loves to spin the truth.
Bush's budget also wants to cut funding for teaching hospitals and freeze medical research . It also would cut the budget for the Health and Human Services Department by $2 billion. So, the quality of life for the American citizens will deteriorate because we need to keep the wealthy and the Pentagon happy. In other words, we have fallen back to the Medieval times where we need to defend the castle, but eat porridge to pay for the king and his knights.
