The word entitlements is used to make Social Security look like a welfare program.
The word "entitlements" is used because under current law the recipients are legally entitled to receive the money, even without a specific annual budget appropriation from congress. So you have "entitlements" (even though the entitlement is meerly a legal one under current law which could change), and "discretionary spending" (even though all spending is under the discretion of congress), as terms of art for the different categories of spending.
So, your argument is not that Bush is running record deficits year after year but the federal government is spending too much money period?
The deficits have been too high for my tastes, but they where not records in the sense that really matters. Since a larger economy can more easily pay for a deficit, the most important way to measure a deficit is as a percentage of GDP (or if you prefer some other measure of the size of the economy). But that standard the deficits are not records.
But you are correct that my main issue is not somewhat high deficits, but spending that is too high. What level the spending should be is a rather complex question, and that level will change over time. Also I don't think the level should change too suddenly, so the short term cuts I would make probably would not be massive. If I had the power to do so, I would make some cuts, and then limit the future growth of government (esp. at, but not just at the federal level), so that it declines over time as a percentage of GDP. |
