LeftOut

by Daryl Moore

JUST SAY NO
George Bush needs some economic tough love

You can tell George Bush never had an allowance growing up. When he needed money, he just asked for it. And he got whatever he asked for.That explains a lot about the American economy. Whenever Dubya has wanted something for the past few years, he has asked for it. And Congress has given it to him.

In 2001, Bush wanted a tax cut that gave more than half of its benefits to the richest one percent of Americans. The poorest 20 percent got $10 a year. The wealthiest one percent got more than $50,000 year. Congress approved it.

In 2003, Bush wanted a new round of tax cuts. Thirty-seven percent of the new cuts went to the wealthiest one percent. Fifty million American families—36 percent of all households—got no tax cut. Congress approved it.

In 2003, Bush sought more than $74 billion in a supplemental budget request for the war on Iraq. Congress authorized it.

Everyone knew that all of these tax cuts (reduced income) and war spending (increased expenses) would result in an exploding federal deficit. Still, Congress approved them because Bush’s approval ratings were sky high and everyone was afraid to tell him no.

This summer, fresh off a victory in Iraq and with even higher approval ratings, Bush staged a fighter-jet landing on an aircraft carrier off the coast of California for a photo-op. GI George’s fighter jet landed. George stepped out of the cockpit wearing a flight suit. Standing in front of a huge “Mission Accomplished” sign, George gave a victory speech and declared that the war-game was over.

Not so fast. Last month, George appeared on television and told us he needs an additional $87 billion for post-“Mission Accomplished” money in Iraq—$67 billion to keep 127,000 American soldiers in Iraq to press forward with Operation Iraqi Freedom and $20 billion to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure (electricity, schools, and stuff).

Bush will get the $87 billion because no one wants to underfund our troops and leave them in a place they did not choose to go without the protection they need to survive. And almost everyone understands that now that we’re in Iraq, we can’t just pack up and leave and let the terrorists take over a country that was never really tied to terrorism (or at least not tied to it in a way our “ally” Saudi Arabia was).

But $20 billion for infrastructure rebuilding in Iraq is a hard pill to swallow just months after a third of America suffered a blackout because of our own antiquated power infrastructure.

Twenty billion dollars sounds like a lot of money to me. What would $20 billion buy, anyway? It would take care of one of these:
• Cover half the budget of the Department of Homeland Security
• Hire 11 million new teachers
• Nearly match the annual budget for the National Institutes of Health
• Hire 11 million new police officers
• More than double the EPA’s budget
• Or fully fund the president’s No Child Left Behind Act, match his promise to provide $3 billion to Africa for AIDS treatment, and leave $10 billion in the government kitty.

But to George, $87 billion is not that much. To him, it’s only two-thirds of a budget surplus that Clinton left George to play with when he took office. To George, it’s only one-fifth of the federal budget deficit that he is set to run in fiscal year 2003.

Somebody needs to cut George off. Take away his credit cards and his club membership. George needs tough love. And a Republican Congress and U.S. Senate aren’t in the habit of saying no.

Is there a general in the house?

Writing from the liberal end of the spectrum, Houston attorney Daryl Moore has a general practice and is board certified in civil and appellate law.

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