This is borrowed from another thread and the original post was from Chris Considine but it is a worthwhile borrow.. as it is an interesting read.
Safe, strong and bankrupt
nydailynews.com
How 'bout that deficit?
Deficit is just not a word that comes up a lot in casual conversation: "Say, Jim, I hear the weekend's going to be nice, but that deficit is another story!"
There's a reason for this, of course. It's that nothing is more boring than the deficit.
Digestion problems, stamp prices, what you can and cannot eat on Atkins - eye-glazers all. But none can kill a conversation quite as fast as, "I just can't stop thinking about the deficit. Can you?" And that is what makes President Bush such a genius: He knows that most Americans will not be able to focus very long on the King Kong deficit his budget proposes - or the fact that he intends to chip away at it with the very programs that we need the most and cost the least.
"Wait a sec!" cries the one (fictional) pal of mine who actually does pay attention to such issues. "Bush is promising to halve the deficit. Why don't you believe him?"
For the same reason William Niskanen, chairman of the libertarian CATO Institute, doesn't believe him. "President Bush also promised to reduce the deficit in half last year, but it went up $15 billion," Niskanen told the press.
Moreover, points out CATO tax analyst Chris Edwards, "Bush left out the costs for Iraq to make the deficit look better."
True, Bush neglected to mention the $81 billion in war funding he is expected to request this month (just one request of many to come) - funding that will, of course, add billions to the deficit.
So, too, will the cost of Bush's initiative to privatize Social Security. Privatizing is expected to cost more than $700 billion in just its first six years. Anyone intent on lowering the deficit cannot find that encouraging.
And considering that almost half of today's $427 billion deficit is directly attributable to the Bush tax cuts from his first term - a term he began with a $236 billion surplus - it's clear that deficit reduction is just not what this guy is about, even though he insists he is.
To pretend he is serious about cutting the debt, Bush has proposed cuts to a whole bunch of social programs, from federally funded cops to medicine for vets (his budget more than doubles the vets' co-pay). Bush also wants to cut vocational ed and aid to fire departments.
But services like these - indeed, all of America's social services except entitlements like Medicaid - are not what is ballooning the deficit. Together they account for only 20% of the budget. Bush could kill them all and still have us wallowing in debt. If he was really serious, he would go after the real culprits: tax cuts, defense spending and the cost of privatizing Social Security.
So here we are, actually talking about the deficit and instead of being bored, I'm mad! Because right now 20 cents of every tax dollar is going to pay interest on that debt. It's like we're beholden to a giant credit card company with payments soaring. What a waste!
"There's never been a nation that is safe, strong and bankrupt," notes Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-Westchester). It's time to attack the deficit in a realistic way - however boring that might sound.
Originally published on February 13, 2005 |
