WP editorial: An Irresponsible President: Deficits? Let the next WH worry

[DeepModem Mom]

An Irresponsible President
Deficits? Let the next White House worry.
Monday, May 8, 2006; Page A18

SHEER COINCIDENCE: Last Monday, the Social Security and Medicare trustees released their annual depressing report. On Tuesday, congressional negotiators handed President Bush a "victory" -- his assessment -- in agreeing to extend his capital gains and dividend tax cuts. Mr. Bush and his fellow tax-cuts-above-all proponents would like you to believe that the two events are unrelated. But taken together they underscore the terrible fiscal predicament that Mr. Bush has chosen to bequeath to his successor.

According to the new estimates, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted in 2040, one year closer than last year's projection, while Medicare's will run out in 2018 -- two years sooner than last year's projection and 12 years earlier than estimated when Mr. Bush took office. These dates may still sound remote, but the problem is more imminent than the customary focus on insolvency suggests. Far earlier than the insolvency date, the programs will be spending more than they take in, in payroll taxes in the case of Social Security, in payroll taxes and premiums in the case of some parts of Medicare. Because of higher-than-anticipated hospital costs, the price of Medicare hospital benefits will exceed tax collections and other dedicated revenue this year -- a situation that will persist and worsen rapidly after 2010. And every year of procrastination makes the eventual solution more painful....

***

When it comes to ensuring the permanence of his tax cuts, though, Mr. Bush is a lot more energetic. Last Tuesday, after he summoned Republican leaders to the White House, they agreed to extend Mr. Bush's cuts on capital gains and dividends, now set to expire in 2008, through the end of 2010. This means that all the tax cuts Mr. Bush has presided over are now set to expire on the same date, Jan. 1, 2011 -- draining the treasury of needed revenue until then and setting the stage for a difficult decision at that time. Allowing all the tax cuts to expire simultaneously is politically unthinkable and economically unwise. Yet this is also the time when strains on the budget from the retirement of the baby boomers will begin their unsustainable upward path.

The breathtaking irresponsibility of this won't become totally clear until Mr. Bush is back on the ranch. But history's verdict is predictable: bad enough to squander a chance to improve the nation's health while there was still time; unforgivable to make it so much worse.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/07/AR2006050701020.html?nav=most_emailed

[LSparkle]

1. Seriously -- this guy is Alfred E. Newman

Wot, ME worry?

Hillary was right after all.

[Vitruvius]

5. No, he's Willie Sutton

It's not stupidity, it's theft.

[pnorman]

6. Here are some appropriate illustrations:

http://www.google.com/images?as_q=bush+%22alfred+e.+neuman%22&svnum=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&imgsz=&as_filetype=&imgc=&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

pnorman

[tibbiit]

2. here is what pisses me off the most

These News-Fuckers say NOW that Bush is irresponsible blah blah blah.
But when the day of reckoning comes will the washington post bring Bush up?
Im betting they won't (or at least it will be buried one time on page b-40 if they do)

tib

[Pirate Smile]

3. kick

[GuvWurld]

4. I can't get past the second paragraph of this article

http://guvwurld.blogspot.com/2005/06/social-security-elephant.html

Sunday, June 12, 2005
The Social Security Elephant

I've talked about this a bunch of times but I've never written about it because it is a bit outside the scope of usual GuvWurld fare. However, today the NYTimes has a news story about the Social Security "debate" called "In Overhaul of Social Security, Age Is the Elephant in the Room". The article focuses on the increasing lifespan and tendency toward earlier retirement. We are now supposed to believe, if you get the metaphor of the title, that this is the most central element of a crucially important issue and we've all known it but refused to discuss it. In my recent conversations about this topic I've seen a lot of a-ha! moments when I describe the different elephant I see.

First of all, the figures used for the discussion of Social Security include forecasts for 2040 and beyond. Have you ever tried to keep to a budget? Ask any small business owner how far out she can project costs when revenues are uncertain. Look at all the corporate re-statements of earnings. Anything this government says about 2040 is a joke. Even allowing a generous margin for error, the scenarios used do not consider the economic turmoil that Peak Oil will bring us. Likewise, how economically devastating will another terror attack be? Cheney and others have said they are guaranteed to happen. Sounds like a terror threat to me alright.

The entire push for Social Security reform is a canard.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. It's like he's giving the rich a chance to siphon huge dividends,

right before USA, Inc. goes under.

Didn't they do this with Enron?

[glitch]

8. Why, yes they did. Treating this country like a business in liquidation

as RFKjr says. It's old school mafia: takeover a viable business (or in this case country, but I am sure they have planetary ambitions), sell off the assets, pocket the profits and move on.
Committing Waste is another old term for it.

[DemReadingDU]

9. Yep,

This country is on its way to implode

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. If Bush does to this country, what his buddies did with Enron,

I think we need to change the laws in order to bring true justice to this country. There should be no country for them to hide in and no bank in which to hide their money.

Can you imagine one day we may actually be going to Crawford to repossess the pig farm?

[DemReadingDU]

11. citizens will be forming lynching mobs

before any laws get changed. It's sad how slow the wheels of justice turn.

Georgie is in office to ensure he and his cronies reap large profits and tax cuts. They are running this country like Enron, and we all know what happened to Enron.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Precisely why the authorities need to move quickly. The jig is up.

I don't think the mainstream will be happy when they learn that our country has been brought down to its knees, precisely because our government failed to act where it should have acted to protect the public interest. So, they better fill the void and quickly.

[DemReadingDU]

13. Agreed, there should be laws, but

The laws we need now, can't be passed because the Republicans control everything. Hopefully the Dems will change the tide in November.