Check out our criminal president at:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/12/21/2947/0424 

Republicans, in light of the high war costs and natural disasters, will certainly be making several noticable budget cuts.  The Spendocrats will undoubtedly cry foul at this, but to those on the right, this presents a great opportunity to cut the Federal deficit.  Indeed, the mantra of the Republican Party has been to eschew Federal spending at all costs and to relegate more fiscal responsibility to the states.  For reasons of terrorism, war, and natural disaster the Bush Administration has not followed this formula and has definitely felt the heat from core constituents.  In the defense of the GOP, however, an over-reliance on Federal subsidies has become a dangerous economic pandemic facing the United States since the New Deal.  State governments must realize that some of the burdens facing their land need to be dealt with internally.  It was Socrates who said problems within a social construct should be dealt with at the most local level possible.  In modern day terms, if a problem can be dealt with at the state level, it certainly ought to be (as opposed to the state asking for assistance from Washington).  If a problem can be dealt with at a county level, it certainly ought to do so (as opposed to asking for assistance from the state government).  Unfortunately this is a reality which will likely never be realized.  One suggestion would be to reverse the percentage taken out of each person's paycheck with regard to Federal Income Tax and State Income Tax.  For every 1 dollar the state takes, the Federal government takes 3.  Those numbers should be reversed; this would create a necessary amount of responsibility on the part of the state which would not only reduce Federal spending, but subsequently reduce the Federal deficit. 

I couldn't agree more, and the battle was just lost by a tie-breaker in the Senate. As for the idea that this bill will do anything to reduce the deficit, it kills me that after years of Republican control the true believers on the right still think their guys are stwewards of fiscal discipline - as evidenced by passing a 40 billion "deficit reducation" package and then turning around to consider a 70 billion tax cut. Go ahead and blame it on war, natural disaster, whatever, but the truth is that not only are COngressional Republicans as free-spending as Dems of old times, they're worse. Watch when your party gets outflanked next year by the theme of Dems running as fiscally responsbile.

I agree that Republicans have, over the years, has as much to do with rising deficits as have Democrats.  But it stands to reason that you cannot spend your way out of a deficit.  The ebb and flow of changing administrations is the true reason why nothing substantive ever gets accomplished.  One party may get some things done in 4 or 8 years, but eventually the other party wins office and implements their own agenda; thus reversing whatever had been previously done.  The only way to change this vicious circle is through reform.  States must be given more incentive to raise their own taxes and resolve their own problems.  The more Washington is relied upon to pave roads or fight inner-city crime, the more the deficit will rise.  There is no use blaming one party over the other--they both contribute equally to the problem.

Any discussion of the GOP spending cuts that is disaggregated from the GOP tax cuts is deliberately misleading.  Taken as a whole the GOP package is fiscally imprudent, not to mention to heartless in attempting to recover some of the costs of its looting of the public treasury by cutting into the bone of social programs for the least well-off.  Further, there is not a more short-sighted policy deciison than to decrease the national investment in higher education. 

No mention of Bush's obscene tax breaks for the superwealthy in your analysis of the situation?

Bush's tax breaks for the Big Business is (and were) an incentive for these companies to hire more workers.  Upon taking office the economy was slipping into a recession which saw a noticable rise in unemployment.  Common sense would indicate that RAISING taxes on large corporations would translate into these giants being LESS willing to hire more workers.  Bush, therefore, sought to ease pressures on the bottom line by giving tax breaks so they would be more willing to hire workers.  And this idea has worked nicely.  Unemployment is at a 2 year low and the GDP rose over 4% last quarter.  We all know the president has little to do with the economy, but Bush inherited a recession and has done a nice job of helping the country get out of it.