Money: It's Everywhere Except Where It's Needed

Today's Daily Talking Points nicely summarizes the gist of Bush-war's 2006 budget:

President Bush's budget should really be called the president's economic program. It is a core statement of conservative values and the best blueprint for understanding the administration's overall economic agenda. Unfortunately for Americans, the president's economic program fails as both a moral statement and as a viable solution to America's long term challenges. The conservative strategy on the economy is clear: aggressively slash taxes for the wealthy on the faulty assumption it will stimulate job creation and wage growth; run up huge budget deficits on the premise that no one cares; and then force massive cuts in critical domestic spending to shrink the overall size of government. Add the president's $2 trillion plan to privatize Social Security to the mix, and the complete illogic and misplaced values of the conservative economic program becomes apparent. The first President Bush understood his son's economic agenda for what it is – "voodoo economics." One simple question for the president and his conservative chums: Why are massive tax cuts for the wealthy off the table but heating oil for the poor and veterans' health care on the table? The president's tax cuts constitute fifty percent of the entire budget deficit. The cuts in the president's budget only make up 6 percent of the deficit. At a time when the president is asking American soldiers and middle class taxpayers to sacrifice for the country, he is telling corporations and the wealthy that they owe nothing and have no obligation to pay down his deficits and support the national interest. Progressives believe that the heart of America has always been its middle class. America should reward individual initiative, ingenuity and hard work and provide people with the economic and social opportunities to make the most of their talents and dreams. We must return to policies that spread the tax burden fairly and require those with sufficient means to pay their fair share. We should not sit by and watch as the rest of the world makes the necessary public investments to remain competitive in the global economy. Our citizens deserve and need this investment and our economy demands it.