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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JDN who wrote (338311)	1/6/2003 4:58:45 AM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

JDN, I agree that we are in a transition period. And I believe that national defense is one of the key responsibilities of our government....if not the key responsibility. Unfortunately, we have come to expect the government to solve most of our day to day problems. There is a real dollar cost for every problem we ask our government to solve. There is also another cost and that is the power that we give the government when we ask them to do something solve a problem for us. I also agree that strengthening our defenses is going to be expensive and that it is unlikely that any social programs will be cut. Which brings me back to the idea that a tax cut without a corresponding cut in spending is not a meaningful economic stimulus solution and therefore shouldn't be spun as one. The other side of the coin is the political reality that any president operates under. Sometimes appearances are important, even if the actions turn out to be meaningless in the overall scheme of things. In other words, since we expect the gov't to solve our economic problems, it is political suicide to not do something....anything. However doomed the action may be. My opinion is that it is not the government's role to mess around with the markets. I believe that gov't intervention had a big role in creating the bubble in the first place. I am less concerned with who was right and wrong in the current economic mess and more interested in trying to figure out what is next. If the economic stimulus package comes out with tax cuts and corresponding cuts in spending, there is a very good chance that I will become very bullish before too long. If there are no cuts in spending, I will probably become more bearish.

To: JDN who wrote (338311)	1/6/2003 10:01:18 AM
From: MulhollandDrive	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

fear thats going to be expensive and I dont see how we can expect a balanced budget this term without severe cutting of social programs which just isnt in the cards not only is cutting not in the cards, jdn....with states having to actually balance budgets, look for more cost shifting of social safety net programs to be transferred to the federal government, all of the non federally funded state mandates (especially in CA and sw border states...... will become a political liability for any president who does not take on this responsibility. just like it would be political suicide (as jorj said) for any politician to not extend unemployment benefits...who really knows the $$$ cost of that...but no way any politician can vote against such measures (and expect to be re-elected)...as the job loss continues and lack of job creation takes it's toll expect the federal cost of social programs to continue to rise.