We’ve all been preoccupied with the dismal Bush foreign policy lately, so it’s wise to take a look at his dismal financial skills as well: the budget, or lack thereof.
Bent on cutting taxes on the rich, he’s left the country with a record deficit, one that Congress is struggling to deal with. His supporters in Congress want to continue cutting taxes, increasing the deficit (which would require legislation that would legally raise the nation’s debt ceiling to it’s highest ever level). But they keep spending and spending, in a bizarre parody of their own “smaller government” claims. These, ladies and gentlemen, are “cut tax and spend” Republicans.
“For a majority of Republicans in Congress, tax cuts are now more important than budget constraints, and they’ve gotten themselves between a rock and a hard place because you can’t have both,” lamented former senator Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.), a prominent advocate of fiscal restraint.
Then there are the more traditional Republicans, who want to cut spending. But the incredible size of the Bush tax cuts means:
Even if Congress had eliminated every penny of the $438 billion in domestic discretionary spending this year, every education and health program, every homeland security effort, national park, interstate highway and federal prison, the government would still find itself in the red.
I think it’s time for a new CEO and board of directors, don’t you?
