I had to laugh recently when I heard a campaign commercial for a New Jersey conservative politician. I don’t know what he was running for, but I heard the phrase “big-spending liberal” at least twice in the ad. I think the GOP has completely lost the right to call liberals “big spenders,” particularly when all three branches of government have been under its rule for some time now and the government just keeps getting bigger and keeps falling deeper and deeper into debt that threatens everything from our citizens’ health to our national security. How dare they call liberals “big spenders,” when our last turn at the wheel led to a decade of unprecedented peace and prosperity and budget surpluses?
This administration isn’t taxing and spending to death, it’s just spending to death. Recently, the House and Senate passed a bill that will borrow $70 billion to extend tax cuts on investment income and dividends. This, at a time when we’re running record deficits as a country and just last March, Congress had to set a new debt ceiling — for the fourth time in five years — at 9 TRILLION DOLLARS. Of course, the president [sic] signed the bill.
Isn’t it unpatriotic to be signing more tax cuts into law when we’re at war? Especially when it looks very much like this war of election could end up costing us a full $2 trillion. I think had the promise of Iraq reconstruction “paying for itself” come true, that would be one thing. But now it’s just irresponsible. The debt ceiling is bound to go higher, and even Senate Budget Committee Chairman and otherwise Ultra-Conservative Judd Gregg of NH noted, “You cannot grow your way out of these deficits.”
But perhaps those who voted for Bush this last time around should be most concerned that their votes have resulted in the United States of America no longer having the cash reserves to pay for adequate national security. One of the angriest e-mails I have received from this site was before the 2004 election when someone from Long Island wrote to me telling me how scared she was of another attack and that she trusted no one but George Bush to take care of us and protect us against terrorists, and that John Kerry was a spinless wimp who wouldn’t protect us at all.
I would invite that woman (if she still reads this blog) to check out this article from Newsday. It basically says that national budget cuts are a serious threat to NYC’s security. The amount of money that New York City will be alotted from the Department of Homeland Security is set to decrease from the $207.5 million it received for fiscal 2005 to almost half that this coming year. Nassau and Suffolk counties will also be affected by these budget cuts.
So who will have to step in and make up the shortfall if we want to continue to be protected and to improve our emergency infrastructure? New York State. And how much did most of us get in tax cuts? A couple hundred bucks? Looks like the state will soon have to be asking us for more money.
Now let me try to remember… Why did Bush pass those tax cuts? Putting more money in our pockets?
We know who got the majority of the tax cuts. It’s well documented, and it continues to be with each round of new tax cuts. Bush and his cronies are raiding the treasury and handing the money over to campaign contributors and fat cats. For the rest of us, every time we hear the word “tax cuts” we should be hearing in our own head, “shell game.”
Next up for Bush and friends? The so-called death tax. Don’t fall for it, folks… How about we get rid of the Bush-induced $28000 “birth tax” put upon each child brought into the world first?