Dooh Nibor
Bush came into office talking about people’s money and how he was going to return it to them. He then proceeded to take the Social Security surplus and gave it to people who did not pay Social Security taxes. There was no income tax surplus; the income tax revenues were still a bit short of balancing the budget, all of the “extra” money belonged to those who paid FICA withholding taxes. Having done this he now claims there is a Social Security crisis because the taxes he has left can’t cover his profligate spending plans.
I went through this “Supply-side – borrow and spend” tripe under Reagan and Bush I, and the only way to described it, if you wish to avoid labeling it criminal, is fiscal mismanagement.
As people all over the world are beginning to worry about Bush’s ability to pay his debts, he presents a budget based on what his father described as “voodoo economics”. His current tax cuts produced no revenue or job gains, so he wants more. And to calm his critics while he awaits a monetary miracle he proposes to cut funding to women, children, college students – anyone with little income and little power.
When some call for changing the Medicare drug benefit to allow for negotiating prices, the normal practice in the free market, he threatens to veto any such bill. He has yet to veto a bill, so there is no way that the blame for any of this mess can fall on anyone except Bush.
Steve at Yellow Doggerel Democrat set me off with this post about a Krugman article.
