Deficit indicates asset mismanagement (Atlanta Journal fries *Co)

[UpInArms]

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0904/08deficit.html

(free registration or try www.bugmenot.com)

The record $422 billion budget deficit is a sign of fiscal irresponsibility and disdain for nation's future.

In his book "The Price of Loyalty," former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill recounts a troubling conversation back in 2002 with his good friend Dick Cheney. When O'Neill warned the vice president that the federal budget deficit was growing so large that it threatened the nation's long-term economic health, Cheney curtly dismissed the issue as unimportant.

"Reagan proved deficits don't matter," Cheney said, leaving O'Neill, a traditional conservative Republican and former CEO of Alcoa, too dumbfounded even to respond. A month later, Cheney fired O'Neill from the Cabinet.

In their public statements, of course, top Bush administration officials have continued to mouth the traditional platitudes about the importance of fiscal responsibility, as if there had been no change in Republican philosophy from the days not so long ago when the party was pushing a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. But the gap between their rhetoric and their record is discouraging.

<snip>

Trying to buy its way into popularity with voters, the Bush White House has overseen the largest increase in nondefense federal spending since the 1960s. Then there's the $200 billion expense of our optional war in Iraq and a subsequent occupation that most assuredly has not been paid for by Iraqi oil revenues, as the administration had suggested. And while government spending has boomed, the Bush administration has simultaneously slashed revenue through a series of tax cuts. This is the only time in U.S. history that taxes have been cut in a time of war, when we are all supposed to be willing to sacrifice for the common good.

...more sizzling reading...

[RobertSeattle]

1. Excellent

It pisses me off to no end that back in 1999/2000 it looked like we have finally tamed the deficit demons for the first time in my lifetime, then Bush F's it all up. You can't use 9/11 as an excuse for every economic failure of this administration.

[punpirate]

2. They're dissembling here...

This wasn't the "largest increase in nondefense federal spending since the 1960s." It was the greatest inability to pay for normal appropriations because of the tax cuts, combined with huge increases in defense spending.

A carefully crafted lie.

[UpInArms]

3. yes, you are correct -

yet, for the AJC to say a single bad word about *Co is pretty amazing in and of itself.