...and we thought Crazy Eddie was insane.
I finally took a look at the Bush administration's proposed budget for 2005. (Which would be in force starting next October.)
$2.4 trillion.
Okay, it's a big country and an expensive one to run, so the base figure - while well beyond anything mere mortals can wrap their minds around - isn't to be dismissed out of hand.
However... consider that this not only includes a 7% increase for the Pentagon (and, interestingly enough, a 7% cut of the EPA budget -- though that's almost certainly a much smaller sum), but there's nothing in the budget to cover the cost of Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He'll ask for that money after the November elections.
We're getting deeper in a hole, and the political calculation of having the current tax cuts expire this year, before the elections, all but guaranteeing they'll be renewed, tells us this will continue strongly into next year.
Getting out of this will be a long, hard road, but the first step is seeing a regime change in Washington. Is this too much to hope for?
I finally took a look at the Bush administration's proposed budget for 2005. (Which would be in force starting next October.)
$2.4 trillion.
Okay, it's a big country and an expensive one to run, so the base figure - while well beyond anything mere mortals can wrap their minds around - isn't to be dismissed out of hand.
However... consider that this not only includes a 7% increase for the Pentagon (and, interestingly enough, a 7% cut of the EPA budget -- though that's almost certainly a much smaller sum), but there's nothing in the budget to cover the cost of Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He'll ask for that money after the November elections.
We're getting deeper in a hole, and the political calculation of having the current tax cuts expire this year, before the elections, all but guaranteeing they'll be renewed, tells us this will continue strongly into next year.
Getting out of this will be a long, hard road, but the first step is seeing a regime change in Washington. Is this too much to hope for?
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