I'm getting tired of a pattern I observe in this administration. Sell proposals based on rosy projections, then backpedal within days or weeks. Or sometimes months.
Was it so important to sign the Medicare bill into law that we couldn't have all just waited another 2 weeks to get the final numbers in? The fact that they came in at the high end of the range of numbers used during the sell job seems to me particularly telling.
Haven't we seen enough of this? The sell job on Iraq, the "no child left behind", now Medicare.
What else?
Is the deficit such a small issue that we can just spend the same pot of money 5x over without worrying?
If this man was running a corporation, he'd be booted out by the shareholders. Why are taxpayers putting up with this?
See you all at the polls.
Posted by Maccabeus (Member # 3051) on :
quote: Is the deficit such a small issue that we can just spend the same pot of money 5x over without worrying?
You're right! Let's just cut Medicare and see what happens then!
See, Bob, it's politically impossible not to spend more right now, deficit or no deficit. You Democrats just keep howling about how our social programs are about to fail.
Posted by Xaposert (Member # 1612) on :
I just find it bizarre that the Republicans have become the big-spending party.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Mostly because the money is going towards waging war instead of social services.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
My favorite right now--President Bush proposed a tax cut scheme that would keep the deficit from getting too far out of control.
Built into this scheme was the fact that the tax cuts would end within a few years. Otherwise the deficit would balloon past anything the Fiscal Conservative Republicans wanted to back.
Now, when war and a still shakey economy has resulted in record deficits, President Bush is campaigning to make those tax cuts permanent--totally destroying any semblance of fiscal responsibility his proposal was approved on.
He sold it to America as a buy now, pay later scheme. Now he's proposing later never come. My credit card company won't let me do that.
I am begining to agree with the pundit who called President Bush, the Ponzi President.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Ponzi president...it's so true!
- Medicare drug benefits don't kick in until after he's out of office, but he gets credit for the bill.
- Nasa's big push to Mars doesn't happen until after he's left office. He, in the meantime, gets to gut the shuttle program.
- the tax cuts are a prime example. Some of the biggest cuts haven't even kicked in yet, and still he's asking for it to be made permanent.
It's a frequin' shell game.
And the Republican agenda disguised.
I'm not a Democrat by the way.
I'm just someone who hates the political process in this country and thinks special interests are running the show without anyone to look out for the people who have to pay for it all, one way or the other.
Posted by BookWyrm (Member # 2192) on :
Speaking from my own perspective, being ON Medicare, I'm not sold on this drug benefit deal. One of the key writers of this proposal has already been offered a VERY lucrative job offer from one of the pharmicos (and its a repub at that.... imagine that) and the fact that I already only draw 574 dollas a month. And this 'premium' is gonna cost me another 60 bucks or so PLUS my out of pocket expenses before it will even kick in....
I posted on another board the other day that after rent and utilities, I had 54 dollars a month left for groceries. Looks like it now gonna be dog food instead of veggies and mystery meat. Because I'm not sure I'm gonna have a choice in whether I want to get this coverage or not, Big Brother is gonna sign me up regardless.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
psst, they left out a letter in the bill. Its not really a Prescription Drug Plan. Its a Restriction Drug Plan.
Restrict the life saving drugs for the wealthy, whom apparently deserve them.