Bush's Budget for 2005 Seeks to Rein In Domestic Costs

[dutchdemocrat]

Bush's Budget for 2005 Seeks to Rein In Domestic Costs
By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 — Facing a record budget deficit, Bush administration officials say they have drafted an election-year budget that will rein in the growth of domestic spending without alienating politically influential constituencies.

They said the president's proposed budget for the 2005 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, would control the rising cost of housing vouchers for the poor, require some veterans to pay more for health care, slow the growth in spending on biomedical research and merge or eliminate some job training and employment programs. The moves are intended to trim the programs without damaging any essential services, the administration said.

Even with the improving economic outlook, administration officials said, the federal budget deficit in the current fiscal year is likely to exceed last year's deficit of $374 billion, the largest on record.


SNIP

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/politics/04BUDG.html?th

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

1. Are you old enough to remember the "peace dividend"?

Throughout the "Cold War", the Repubs said we just didn't have enough money to fund the Dems social programs, but once the "war" was won there would be a "peace dividend" made up of the funds no longer needed to keep the U.S. on war footing.

We know what happened. Once they gained power, all talk of a peace dividend disappeared. (Sort of like how "states rights" has been dropped from the GOP lexicon now that they control the entire federal government.)

The never-ending "war on terrorism" provides them with the ultimate excuse to cut back and eventually eliminate every social program since FDR's New Deal. Since the "enemy" is a form of warfare and not a named adversary, there will never be anyone who can surrender and end the "war". Meanwhile, those in charge can come up with more and more ways to spend tax dollars -- both ours and those of our children -- to defend against every "threat" they can imagine. And you can bet they can imagine a LOT of threats.

So much for the peace dividend. It was just another Republican lie.

[NewJeffCT]

2. starving the beast

As the great Paul Krugman put it, the Republicans are trying to "Starve the Beast" (the Federal Government) - run up the deficit so frighteningly high that the government will have to declare a fiscal emergency some time in the future. In the name of the War on Terror, they will force draconian cuts in social programs on us.

[RC]

3. If we could convince enough people that killing and being killed

is not the way to peace and by negotiating differences instead of declaring war, the money saved could be used to help all concerned.

Bu$h should have been publicly shamed & ridiculed for his First War of the 21st Century remark.

Why is there so much disconnect between what people think and reality? Why do some get it, but most don't? We all have the same basic resources at our disposal. Is it maybe because we discourage thinking, let alone critical thinking in our schools? People never learn to question, to stop and think?