Posted on 02/02/2003 5:05:41 AM PST by RJCogburn
MONEY STILL WON'T grow on trees, but deficits seem to grow on the Bushes.
Anyone listening to the State of the Union address with a calculator at hand might have had a hard time keeping up with all of the President's proposals for new spending.
"We will not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other generations," the second President Bush declared in Tuesday night's address to the Congress, the nation and much of the world. But with his penchant for bigger budgets and deeper deficits, Bush is already passing on the legacy of a previous generation of Republican leaders — his father's.
He is, to be sure, all for cutting taxes, by some $674 billion in the next 10 years. He is convinced that will stimulate the economy to produce the economic growth that will result in higher revenues and eliminate, in the long run, the deficits we are creating now.
As the President put it, "the economy grows when Americans have more money to spend and invest; and the best and fairest way to make sure Americans have that money is not to tax it away in the first place."
And the best way to avoid taxing it away is to make sure we don't spend it away. Yet Bush continually demonstrates he's no piker when it comes to spending, his conservative rhetoric not withstanding.
"The best way to address the deficit and move toward a balanced budget is to encourage economic growth and to show some spending discipline in Washington, D.C.," he said. "We must work together to fund only our most important priorities."
So who knew that research and development of hydrogen-powered automobiles is among "our most important priorities"? Bush proposes spending a mere $1.2 billion so that the first car driven by a child born today "could be powered by hydrogen and pollution-free."
It was Al Gore who labeled your car's internal combustion engine a greater threat than the atomic bomb. But it took Texas oil man George W. Bush to make a national priority of investing taxpayers' money on a hydrogen hope for the future. Maybe Gore really did win the 2000 election.
It would be wonderful if hydrogen cars and other ideas for reducing both pollution and dependence on foreign oil would also reduce our military ambitions in the Middle East. But Bush insists the war he is about to launch in that part of the world is not about oil. It is about toppling tyrants and ridding the world of evildoers.
And the world has no shortage of tyrants and other evildoers. So regardless of oil supplies or hydrogen cars, the wars will go on.
And so will the "initiatives" for spending more money, at home and abroad.
Bush even showers federal dollars on volunteer programs like his USA Freedom Corps, the kind of program Republicans scoffed at (but dutifully funded) when it was dubbed Americorps in the Clinton regime.
The President proposes a $450 million initiative to provide mentors for disadvantaged junior high school students and children of prisoners.
He has a new $600 million program for treatment of drug abusers. He is asking Congress for an additional $10 billion (that's billion with a "b") for treatment of AIDS victims in Africa and the Caribbean.
Another $400 billion will be needed over the next 10 years to "reform and strengthen" Medicare.
We can have all this, a war to smash Iraq and a tax cut, too. It is bold, it is ambitious, it is far-reaching. Surely, this Bush has found "the vision thing." But not the balance sheet.
The Congressional Budget Office has forecast a deficit of $199 billion for the current fiscal year and, once again, $200 billion deficits "as far as the eye can see." And that projection doesn't take into account the proposed tax cuts. With the tax cuts figured in, said Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch McConnell, the budget the President will soon present to the Congress will likely project record deficits of more than $300 billion a year.
The one-year record for red ink so far is $290 billion in 1992, which just happened to be the last year "Poppy" Bush was in office.
And then we have the upcoming war with Iraq, which will cost, by the varied estimates of administration officials, anywhere from $50 billion to $200 billion. Increased security efforts and preparation for the coming war have surely contributed to the spending explosion in Washington. But Bush's first budget exceeded Clinton's last by more than $100 billion. And that was well before the planes crashed into the World Trade Center.
Somewhere on the way to the White House, the "compassionate" conservative lost his conservatism. His compassion will be tested in the months ahead.
He is absolutely correct. If he continues this way, there will not be many more 'other generations' because the country itself will be effectively gone. W is presiding over the country's economic and fiscal collapse while effectively encouraging the country being ivanded by millions of foreigners each year (he calls it 'an expression of family values').
Just think about it and then explain it away: $300 Billions annual budget deficits, $500 billion annual trade deficits, rapid de-industrialization, moral collapse. The question is not IF we are going to survive as a nation but WHEN we will cease to be one.
Meanwhile, let's worry about AIDS in Africa, the street map of Jerusalem, Saddam's fate and the effect of actually enforcing our immigration laws could have on illegal immigrants' self esteem.
How about the only party that draws even fewer votes than the Greens, Constitutions and Reforms?
How about the party that's even more liberal than the dems on social issue like abortion? You say you believe in liberty, but what about the liberty to the 1.5 MILLION babies killed each year, simply because they are an inconvenience? Hmmmm?
Until we learn to place the unborn at a higher priority than our checkbooks, we need to have higher deficits and taxation. We simply deserve it! What hipocrtites we have become.
There is ot one single political party capable of saving us from this mess. With all of this big talk about the greatness of the libertarian movement (chuckle- 1% in the presidential election!), Neal Boortz is still NOT man enough to address the issue. He and Donahue could have a full fledged orgy with the NOW gang over their agreement over aborion, couldn't they. Liberty my rear end!!!!!
The number of votes is not an idicator of one being right or wrong. Remember, Jesus, W's favorite social scientist, had very few followers while he was around. And W himself, drew fewer votes than Algore.
What there was were projected surpluses from the crooked Billy Jeff Blythe and his criminal gang.
The Republican Party deserves a massive amount of the blame for this fantasy, because instead of telling the truth they went along with the feel-good BS.
A pox on both their houses.
That is true, but it started long before the criminals you speak of. Our parents, grand parents, and great grand parents failed to defend their country against the criminals, of their time.
Yeah, I just went and honored Him for a few hours this morning. One major difference between His teachings and that of libertarianism is that He taught us to crucify ourselves and the libertarians don't mind seeing babies crucified for the sake of justifying all of their other beliefs.
Do you know how lame that is? Is s either murder, or it's not. It seems easier to stand behind the states "right" to murder babies than it does to stand behind the Savior of the World.
The very term Libertarian was drawn from the famous historical document that reads "Life Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
We can so easily drop off the right to life in order to justify our own persoanl liberty and happiness, can't we? We should be ashamed of ourselves! The Lord says that the "Life is in the blood."
The fringe can keep their head in the sand and attempt to ignore the babies, Christ's suffering and His ultimate victory, but one day will have to answer for the act of selfishness. Selfishness is exactly what it is. Are the "pro-choicers" prepared for that? I think not.
Christ does not care about our politics-He wants to know that we love Him.
He has more now than Harry Browne will have in 1,000 lifetimes, doesn't He.
There is a major difference in your comparison. Jesus has the Words of Life, while Browne is doing his lifetime groupie thing. Maybe he ought to crucify himself and lay down his own agenda for the sake of the babies. I hope that one day he'll be man enough to do so. Harry Browne didn't take my sin, Jesus did.
And there are over 1 Billion Christians in the world today. There will be billions in heaven.
Let me know when Harry Browne takes even one of my sins and I'll be the judge of it. Until then, let it be known that your comparison was lame.
People rejected jesus because He affected their flesh, and that hurts. People reject Harry Browne (and you know they do), because he is .... well... he's a Libertarian.
Then why was Jesus brought into it? Sadly, many of us spend a lot of time worshippping our political identity, instead of placing Christ first.
If being right is the point, why is Maria antwell a US Senator? You guys really showed us up, didn't you. You were so right that time.
I am cetaian that the Libertarians will NEVER EVER receive more than 2% in a Presidential election. The liberals are more willing to leave the democrat party for the greens than conservatives are to leave the GOP for the LP. Some here claim tha they have-good for them.
Carry a VERY BOLD pro-life point of view and see how many people leave the GOP. Until then, te LP is still nothing more than a small group of mad people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.