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Pastimes : 100 Acre Wood -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lost1 who wrote (2084)	7/16/2002 1:25:31 PM
From: Lost1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3287

Deficit has culprits of all stripes By Tom Teepen COX NEWSPAPERS Tuesday, July 16, 2002 Your choice: tax-and-spend Democrats or spend-and-don't-tax Republicans. While most of us were distracted watching famous corporations blowing up all over the landscape like sabotaged ammunition dumps, little attention was paid to the fact that the federal corporation was exploding, too. The Bush administration, amid all the hubbub, sort of slipped the word out that the federal deficit this year will be $165 billion. Washington has managed to create a deficit almost as big as the surplus was just a year ago. The response has been the usual one. Everyone involved has formed a big circle and pointed to the next guy. For once, they've got it right. Some of the cause is just bad luck. Though mild as recessions go, the recent one, still lingering in parts of the economy, has knocked a big hole in revenues. But players in both parties are a very large part of the problem. President Bush's big tax cut opened a sump that will suck out revenue in increasing amounts as it phases in and its effects accumulate, creating perfectly predictable shortfalls even in a revived economy. The motivation was never economic. Bush first pitched the cut as a reward for good times, then as a remedy for bad times. Whatever. The tax cut was always political and ideological -- a populist-seeming gesture that instead directed the lion's share of benefits to the nation's wealthiest, and ritual obeisance to dogmatic conservatism's scheme to kill social programs by defunding government. In addition, the president has taken up a war on terrorism without asking a dime more from you and me. The administration is increasing military outlays and spending billions on homeland defense and all the while kiting the appealing but peculiar idea that we can have the war free. Democrats have been doing their part to wreck the budget. Farm state Democrats -- especially Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle -- were the busiest pixies in the factory working up that wildly overwrought farm bill, some $100 billion over six years in largely uncalled for, and sometimes counterproductive, subsidies. And both parties in Congress have jumped the traces. A bidding war in patriotism-by-dollars has broken out, for instance, increasing security appropriations beyond amounts the administration believes it can effectively spend. You don't have to be a balanced-budget militant to expect better political management. Budget Director Mitchell Daniels sees a surplus again by '05, but only if the economy booms and Congress never increases discretionary spending by more than 2 percent. Fat chance. It is time for Bush to put his foot down, with vetoes if necessary. He never should have tolerated the farm spree. And certainly this is no time to push for more tax cuts, as Republicans are doing in trying to end the estate tax, which is paid only by the richest 2 percent of us anyway. Democrats have had the luxury of sniping at the president's tax cut but have so far refused to take up whatever liability would go with doing the obvious -- beginning to scale back the cut's excesses. The liability might not be all that big. Chances are most voters already have figured out that that particular emperor is dancing naked. Teepen is based in Atlanta. Contact him at teepencolumn@coxnews.com.

To: Lost1 who wrote (2084)	7/16/2002 1:29:20 PM
From: Original Mad Dog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3287

Just wondering....how many men on this thread have not seen 9 1/2 weeks? <g>

To: Lost1 who wrote (2084)	7/16/2002 1:53:35 PM
From: HG	Respond to of 3287

Now That The Magic Has Gone....Unchain My Heart....Let the Healing Begin.....You are So Beautiful....Different Roads....Love to Lean On....My Father's Son..... I have a playlist of Cocker specials on my pc....been playing it for almost a week now......over and over... The magic hasn't really gone...and i don't care if Cliff wrote it....the end product is JC's ! - - - MANY RIVERS TO CROSS BUT I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND MY WAY OVER WANDERING I'M LOST AS I TRAVEL ALONG THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER MANY RIVERS TO CROSS AND IT'S ONLY MY WILL THAT KEEPS ME ALIVE I'VE BEEN RIPPED, WASHED UP FOR YEARS AND I MERELY SURVIVE BECAUSE OF MY PRIDE AND THIS LONELINESS WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IT'S SUCH A DRAG TO BE ON YOUR OWN MY WOMEN LEFT ME BUT SHE WOULDN'T SAY WHY GUESS I'LL JUST BREAK RIGHT DOWN AND CRY MANY RIVERS TO CROSS BUT JUST WHERE TO BEGIN I'M PLAYING FOR TIME THERE'VE BEEN TIMES I FIND MYSELF THINKING OF COMMITTING SOME TERRIBLE CRIME STILL THIS LONELINESS WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE IT'S SUCH A DRAG TO BE ON YOUR OWN MY GIRL LEFT ME BUT SHE WOULDN'T SAY WHY GUESS I'LL JUST BREAK RIGHT DOWN AND CRY MANY RIVERS TO CROSS BUT I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND MY WAY OVER WANDERING I AM LOST AS I TRAVEL ALONG THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER MANY RIVERS TO CROSS AND IT'S ONLY MY WILL THAT KEEPS ME ALIVE I'VE BEEN RIPPED, WASHED UP FOR YEARS AND I MERELY SURVIVE BECAUSE OF MY PRIDE