Bush Says Spending Cuts Will Be Needed
An administration official said the White House and Congress will look for specific spending cuts, starting with about $20 billion in savings identified in the president's 2006 budget. Still more could come from changes to entitlement programs to slow their growth. Those proposals have already been examined by Congress and rejected.
Also, some of those cuts would hit precisely the programs the lawmakers want to expand. Among the programs slated by Bush for cuts were Medicaid, which he now wants to extend to evacuees, and the Army Corps of Engineers, which is faced with the huge burden of repairing levees and dredging waterways wrecked in the storm.
Hmm. If we take away money from the Army Corps of Engineers, who in the private sector do you reckon we'll pay to fix the levees?
Standby for the propaganda blitz from the usual suspect think tankers (Hoover, Heritage, AEI, etc.).
More winger social engineering through creative budgeting! I guess Pat Robertson was right -- the flood truly was a godsend.
ReplyDeleteHere's how I hope this will play out (and this is, I know, wishful thinking/liberal wet dream): as dubya's numbers continue to plummet, and as Nov 06 comes nearer and congressional 'publicans smell their own impending doom, the lawmakers will finally realize that they are, indeed, accountable. And then they'll do the right thing.
Doug,
ReplyDeleteIf the people don't send a warning shot to government in '06, I fear what will follow.
Actually, Mr Hoffman, the politicians, sensing their own doom, as you put it, will put on a full court press for electronic voting machines in all states.
ReplyDeleteThat and poll taxes, disguised as "voters' IDs"
Lurch
Yikes, Lurch. I wish I could think of something to say except . . . you're probably right. It happened in '04, after all.
ReplyDeleteGasp to all.
ReplyDelete