Monday, February 5, 2007

2.9 Trillion??

It's official. The man has completely lost it. He's never had an ounce of common sence, but this is insane!

Bush's $2.9 trillion request is 'sticker shock'

"It just gives you sticker shock. Every time you turn around it's another $100 billion," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, said of Bush's war spending.

The federal deficit hit an all-time high under Bush of $413 billion in 2004. It has been declining since that time and the 2008 budget projects it will continue to decline and show a surplus in 2012, three years after Bush leaves office.

To accomplish those reductions, Bush would allow only modest growth in the government programs outside of defense and homeland security. He is proposing eliminations or sharp reductions in 141 government programs, for a savings over five years of $12 billion, although Congress has rejected many of the same proposals over the past two years.

Bush also will seek to trim spending on farm subsidies by $18 billion over five years, mainly by reducing payments to wealthier farmers, an effort certain to spark resistance among farm state lawmakers.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm, that's strange. We've saved $100 billion already. I heard the other day Bush was going to ask for $3 trillion.

The $245 billion he's asking for Iraq is 'off budget' so, you have to add that to it to really get an idea of the misery.

To give you a little something to compare to, Bill Clinton's last budget, FY01, was $1.863 trillion.

You gotta love these goddamn conservatives! I hate to see what they do if they weren't.

fallenmonk said...

This is insane. There is no way this is a balanced budget or even leading to one in 2012 or anytime. We can continue to spend 500 billion dollars on defense year after year and balance the budget while meeting the domestic needs of this country. Fiscal suicide. The rest of the civilized world combined doesn't spend this much money for military.

Steve Bates said...

Ah, but it's a Republican tradition. If I recall correctly, Saint Reagan never once submitted a balanced budget in his eight years in office. But I also read a couple of years ago that the Bush administration had spent, by that time, more than all the presidents since George Washington... combined. I suppose that will be another part of Bush's legacy.

jams o donnell of The Poor Mouth remarked that that amount is more than the entire GDP of the UK. Scary thought.

Anonymous said...

I could agree with the most of the critisism here but curbing the insane farm subsidies is not one of them. The Western Industrial Nations have created huge unproductive farming sectors that with their heavily subsidized operations have literally killed the third world food production. If anything, we should be getting rid of this useless subsidy circus which would go a long way to enable the third world to compete on an equal footing and to be able to feed themselves. Consequently, there would also be an immediate drop in illegal immigration. But, of course, this will not happen!

Anonymous said...

"read a couple of years ago that the Bush administration had spent, by that time, more than all the presidents since George Washington... combined."

No Steve, that would be 'borrowed' more from foreign sources.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200511/NAT20051104b.html

"Bush and the current administration have borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 presidents combined"