Bush's Budget Would Rival The Record Deficit of 2004

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: The Washington Post

President Bush will present a budget tomorrow that would slow the growth of Medicare and cut or eliminate an array of domestic programs but still anticipates a flood of new red ink that will rival the record deficits of his first term, administration officials said.

Bush's fiscal 2009 budget would increase defense spending by 5 percent and put a modest amount of new money into favored initiatives such as veterans affairs, education and homeland security.

But the president wants to dramatically slow the growth of big federal health programs, reduce anti-terrorism grants for states and cities, and cut spending on anti-poverty, housing and social service programs, according to budget documents and interviews with officials throughout the federal government.

Even as he proposes restoring funding for the controversial Reading First program, Bush will take aim at a number of education initiatives, officials said. The early literacy program Even Start would be eliminated, as would grants to states for education technology, technology careers and incarcerated youth. Funding for a college scholarship program named after Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) would fall from $40 million to zero, a symbolic shot at a fierce Bush critic.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/02/AR2008020202042.html

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President Bush, with Office of Management and Budget Director Jim Nussle, signs the executive order protecting American taxpayers from government spending on wasteful earmarks. The president will present a budget tomorrow. (Pool Photo By Dennis Brack Via Getty Images)

[Skittles]

1. in that pic, someone forgot to tell him to put his glasses on

you know, to show he's doing something "important"

[mamameow]

12. seeing through rose colored glasses

there in his ass!!!!

[papau]

2. Take the National Debt number each 9/30 and subtract - and see real deficit has been around $500B

for each year of the Bush administration - sometimes a little higher - sometimes a little lower - but no real change as Bush tries like Reagan to raise the Debt so there is no money for social welfare after debt interest and pentagon are paid for.

[dysfunctional press]

3. until someone has the political courage to tackle defense spending

america will never be america again.

[Ishoutandscream2]

18. Exactly

and raise taxes on the top 1 percent.

[barbtries]

19. not to mention how much of the "defense" spending

is actually spent making bushies ever more obscenely rich, as our soldiers give up their youths if not their lives far away from home suffering in a foreign land that doesn't want them. man i can't express how sick the bastards make me.

[LynnTheDem]

4. Rightwingnuts, feeling safer yet???

reduce anti-terrorism grants for states and cities

[Supersedeas]

27. it's all about short-term winning to the Repiglickin' cans

[ladywnch]

5. so when will we hear about the signing statement that says he can

throw money at Halliburton and his other pet projects?

ya know there had to be a signing statement!

[tabasco]

6. Thanks republican voters.

This is what you get when you put phony Christian, republican profiteers in charge of the government.

Ruinous debt, spiraling inflation, and bloody, endless quagmires.

But they still call themselves "conservatives!"

I always wondered, what do conservatives conserve?

[ananda]

7. What do conservatives conserve..

.. their own money and status, and sense
of smarmy sanctimonious righteousness.

[Amonester]

9. They conserve their stupidity. - eom

[gratuitous]

8. Record deficit again

And that doesn't even include the continuing costs of Iraq and Afghanistan. What a legacy. Thank you oh so very much Republicans and your tools on the Supreme Court. Thank you Sandra. Thank you William. Thank you Uncle Slappy. Thank you Fat Tony. Assholes all.

[tanyev]

10. There's no deficits like Republican deficits.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

11. He will cause US to break $10,000,000,000,000.00 but will he do it before he leaves office?

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
The Outstanding Public Debt as of 03 Feb 2008 at 02:36:45 PM GMT is:

$9,242,329,995,784.84

[JohnnyLib2]

13. And this is just a hint of what the incoming president will face....

the real "shock and awe" created by Bush's administration will hit us in 2009 and for years afterward IMO. We'll need a pragmatic and hard nosed
president to manage what comes next.

[Toots]

14. Nothing there that the current crop of Democrats in Congress will balk at

They are pretty much going to give Bush* everything he wants because all together now "They don't have the votes"

[cornfedyank]

15. he only funds his war till 01/01/09.

after that it's not his problem.

[chelsea0011]

16. "slow the growth of medicare"? Like medicare is some subdivision

going into the neighborhood? Medicare costs increase because more people use it as time moves on. So he wants to shut the door on people who need it?

[zbdent]

17. party of personal responsibility and fiscal policy

my ass ...

[ursi]

20. the last year of the Chimp rule is going to be painful

[Phred42]

21. SCORCH & BURN !

These phucking republicans are using (and have been using) a SCORCH & BURN approach to their Governance of this Country. The closer we get to the end of their reign the worse it will get. WATCH.

..... and the Democrats....? Where the HELL are you!?

[BearSquirrel2]

22. But I thought tax cuts ...

But I thought tax cuts were supposed to raise revenue??????

ONCE, an income tax coincided with an increase in social security taxes. Revenues went up because THEY RAISED TAXES!!!!

The amount of BS that has come from this is astounding. These people have regular Americans hoodwinked into thinking that cutting taxes on the rich is the solution to our problems.

When the axe finally comes down, I hope that the University of Chicago has the guts to revoke the tenure of all the psuedo-scholars who have given scholarly backing to all these nonsense economic arguments.

[water]

25. Supply-side is rubbish, but tax cuts can increase revenue, the same way...

... that price cuts can.

[water]

23. Wait, you mean Republicans AREN'T actually for limited government and free markets??

Who would have guessed?

[OzarkDem]

24. $10 billion per month in Iraq

Get out.

[disndat]

26. Mission Accomplished

The RW goal is to push the U.S. into an oligarchy (Banana Republic) and concentrate power into the hands of a few. Stick a knife into the U.S. we
are well-done.