Bush's Budget Is Faith-Based

He derisively criticized Sen. John Kerry for supporting one during the 2004 presidential campaign, but George W. Bush recently set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. And Dubya threw in a timetable to withdraw from Afghanistan for good measure.

Don’t believe us? How else can citizens interpret the $3.1-trillion federal budget proposal for 2009 that the president unveiled Monday?

Bush’s plan includes a projected $410 billion deficit this year and a $407 billion deficit in 2009. Fret not, small-government-loving Republicans, because the president forecasts a sizeable budget surplus — $48 billion — by 2012. This will be accomplished, he says, because the economy will not only rebound but also grow by a robust 2.7 percent later this year. Nevermind that most economists scoff at that notion as unrealistic.

More interestingly, Bush’s deficits are wiped out by not including enough money for fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and conveniently not accounting for any funding — at all — for the wars beginning in 2010. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, our troops will be back home by Jan. 1, 2010. We can all rest much easier and hope casualties remain low until then.

Of course, Bush supporters will say the president doesn’t want to include any amount for the wars because his successor, whether Democrat or Republican, will obviously change Bush’s disastrous tactics and foreign policy and craft his or her own funding request for Congress to approve. If Bush wants to claim the mantle of budget hawk by asserting that his spending plan will eventually lead the nation on the path to fiscal responsibility, though, he needs to be more honest and include the money that obviously will be necessary to clean up the messes he’s created around the globe.

Some Bush critics have described his presidency as faith-based, not fact-based, motivated solely by ideology and what he would like to see happen domestically and abroad without any concrete plan for achieving his goals.

Despite his shortcomings, Bush retains a fawning fan base among Greater Cincinnati’s business community. Folks like Cintas CEO Richard Farmer and United Dairy Farmers founder Carl Lindner Jr. and his family are among Dubya’s top contributors. No sensible business leader, however, would allow a company they oversee to craft a long-term financial plan like the one Bush is trying to pass off on the American public.

It’s not only our business leaders caught in the haze of delusion. The area's congressional delegation — led by Steve Chabot, Jean Schmidt and John Boehner — firmly endorse almost all of Bush’s initiatives. Voters should closely watch whether they support Bush’s budget or recommend changes.

— Kevin Osborne

Comments

[David E. Gallaher]

When Jean Schmidt got Dubya's autograph at the State of the Union address, that completely fulfilled her lifetime "legislative agenda."

[Nora Sue]

Everything about this administration has proven to be a lie-from its compassionate conservatism to ,"we don't torture".They never stop lying. What a legacy they leave behind.

[Political Junkie]

Bush is really the natural, ultimate outgrowth of the conservative coalition put together first in 1968 and amplified by Reagan.

The coalition's competing concerns would eventually let a shmuck like Bush Jr. rise to the top.

[David E. Gallaher]

Political Junkie,
Your metaphor of a shmuck rising got me thinking of the Pfizer riser, Viagra.
Yiddish, the miracles of pharmacy plus mixing metaphors are a powerful brew.
Makes me wonder if Peter Bronson might be a columnist for the NYT if he knew Yiddish.

But the hillbilly Irish version of shmucks rising is "shit floats."
Dilbert would back me up. It's true in all aspects of life. Especially politics.
All of us little farts have always had to work around and through the shits. At least we have a "voice." Sort of like Fred Thompson's.