JF, The better question is why is Bush signing them? Bush is no fiscal conservative, and there are real consequences, for his reelection.
You know, that's a very good question. One theory is that Bush is trying to take issues away from the Democrats so they can't accuse him of "taking drugs away from seniors," or "not protecting jobs at steel plants," or "not caring about the AIDS epidemic in Africa." The deficit skyrockets, of course, but politically he may be tossing the dice toward a recovering economy, which both softens the deficit and turns people's attention away from the bloating government.
The Democrats, of course, will accuse Bush of not living up to his fiscal conservative ideals, but I have not seen one shred of evidence that any of the Gang of Nine would be better. Instead, they're preaching higher taxes, which they're selling as "rollbacks of Bush's tax cuts to the 'rich'." Of course, they're also trying to tell the public that tax cuts caused the current recession, which no one but the intellectually bankrupt would believe.
Bottom line is that the deficit isn't really that high on the priority list for either party, nor is it for most of the public. We'll probably pay for it later, for sure. By then the blame game will begin, and the public won't be able to tell the difference between Republicans and Democrats. Heck, they can't really tell the difference these days, so what's the point?
Tenchusatsu |
