Bush's Budget Moves Have Made the Future a Voiceless Victim

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-outlook10jan10.story
WASHINGTON OUTLOOK
Bush's Budget Moves Have Made the Future a Voiceless Victim
Ronald Brownstein

January 10, 2005

It may be difficult to believe, but as the debate on Social Security begins, what Washington needs most is another lobbying group. This one would advocate for the interests of Americans not yet born.

Concern for future generations has been scarce in the capital's recent fiscal decisions. First, President Bush muscled through Congress a series of massive tax cuts that showered benefits on today's taxpayers but left future taxpayers the prospect of unending federal budget deficits. Then, after a bidding war between the two parties, Congress approved and Bush signed an expensive new prescription drug benefit for seniors.

Over the next 75 years, the best estimate is that Bush's tax cuts will cost from $10 trillion to $12 trillion. The prescription drug bill will cost about $8 trillion. All this comes while bills mount for the global war against terrorism. In essence, we've voted ourselves more services and lower taxes and billed both to our children through a higher national debt that is soaring again after shrinking in the late 1990s.

The combined cost of the tax cut and prescription drug benefit is about five times larger than the projected gap between Social Security's revenue and its promised benefits over the next 75 years. Yet Washington has decided that the Social Security shortfall is the real crisis. So the administration is discussing changes that would sharply reduce guaranteed Social Security benefits for young workers while protecting benefits for those at or near retirement today.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[seasat]

1. Brownstein just touches on one sad cut to our future.

Shrub Inc is already gutting our investments in scientific research. The tragedy of this is that research is a pittance compared to his other spending excesses. He's cutting millions while blowing billions in other areas. We lost our edge in manufaturing, then we lost our edge in skilled labor, and now we're losing our edge in innovation. Investing in research would at least aid in mitigating some of these costs that Shrub Inc is piling on future generations by increasing productivity.

[papau]

3. true - the disaster that is Shrub will be felt for a long long time

:-(

[Moderator]

2. papau

Per DU copyright rules
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[papau]

4. Sorry - and just got my lunch and saw your post - too late to edit

It is only a few paragraphs from a long article - but it does exceed the DU 4 paragraph rule because I was lazy in editing it

Sorry

Please edit as necessary

thanks