Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Too bad for the administration that all the data was stored on various computers and a bunch of smart people analyzed it and made it public. One thing you can count on in Washington is leakers. God bless them! Leaks make me think of bath-tubs, and leaking bath-tubs remind me of Grover Norquist, whose dream has always been to strangle a shrunken government to death as the water gets drained from domestic-spending.

Like Norquist, most of Bush's economic advisors are believers in a "Starve the Beast" agenda, where money for domestic programs is drained from the budget through obscenely huge tax cuts and massive military spending. The Defense Department's take of next year's budget is over a half trillion dollars, when you include Iraq and Afghanistan supplemental spending (not already in the President's budget). At the same time as we are drowning in debt (a nearly half-trillion dollar deficit). Finally, the president is demanding to make his tax cuts permanent, draining even more money from the beast's dinner plate (or water from its bath-tub to beat the metaphor to death).

With shrinking revenue and a promise to slash the deficit in half, something has to get cut. But how do you decide which programs to slash? The president has a simple answer. In a speech the other day, he said that it was important for the government to reign in spending. Programs that are failing should have their funding reduced or eliminated altogether.

Let's look at some of the programs that Bush's budget is planning to cut and see if they meet the "failing" test.

The Veterans Administration would lose over $10 billion dollars under the Bush beast-starving plan. This seems somewhat strange, given that we are at war today, with over ten thousand soldiers already badly wounded and potentially 100,000 more suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Is the VA a failing program? Should it be trimmed or eliminated altogether?

The president claimed in his State of the Union address that America was addicted to oil, and said we had to break that addiction. Thank goodness we have an energy program looking into alternative energy sources, energy conservation, and emergency energy preparedness programs. Gosh, I guess those programs are failing as well, because the president proposes to slash their funding by 29% over the coming years, to the tune of about $4.4 billion dollars.

Worried about Bird Flu? Thank goodness we have the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. Except, it looks like those two are failing as well since those beasts and the rest of health-related research/science programs are going to get starved to the tune of $24 billion dollars between now and 2011. Mmmmm.... Tastes like chicken! Or was that a mad cow?

By now you probably need to take a deep breath, clear your mind.... Smell some fresh air. Now that's something to work for, right? Clean air? We've had some good success protecting the environment, cleaning up toxic waste, saving wetlands..... Nope! Looks like that beast is one of the worst. We'll be slashing $28 billion from the natural resources and environment beast between now and 2011. I guess we'll have to add that beast to the endangered species list, except with so little money, they may not be able to afford keeping such a list for much longer.

Perhaps that last one sent you over the edge and you're considering committing some form of civil disobedience in response. That could get you into trouble with the law, and gosh knows our legal system hasn't been working very well. So, chances are you might not have to worry too much because the president's got that one covered too. Over the next five years we'll slice about $10 billion out of the administration of justice's budget. I always thought Clarence Thomas was a beast and wouldn't mind seeing him starve a little.

I could go on, but by now readers might be considering strangling a beast or two of their own. So, I'll stop. But, I do recommend you hop over to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and read more about the plans for 2007 and beyond. Take a look at what's getting slashed and let the candidates in this upcoming mid-term election know how you feel about it. That is, if you haven't been too starved by the cuts to food programs, housing, and other social services which will be slashed to the tune of $23 billion dollars. I just can't help myself.

Visit the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities at http://www.cbpp.org

About the Author

Craig Wiesner is one of the content developers for the Teaching Economics As If People Mattered web site, www.teachingeconomics.org.