Deficit Dance ("Beware the Texas Two Step")

[rodeodance]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64428-2005Jan10.html

Deficit Dance

By Isaac Shapiro

Tuesday, January 11, 2005; Page A15


When it comes to domestic policy, President Bush is dancing an unusual Texas two-step. The exceptional feature of this dance is the long delay between the first and second steps. And watch out: Lots of toes are about to be stepped on (along with lots of government programs essential to Americans' well-being).

The first step was to enact, in a series of bills adopted from 2001 through 2004, extremely large tax cuts. This year alone those tax cuts will total $215 billion. High-income households will reap most of the gains, with the top 20 percent of earners receiving 70 percent of the tax cuts. Roughly $47 billion of the cuts will go to the top 1 percent, a group with average incomes of about $1 million.

.....Congress has been the willing partner in this dance. It, too, has sought to obscure the connection between the tax cuts and program reductions, a strategy it is expected to follow this year as well.

Beware the Texas two-step. It represents deceptive budgeting. The trade-offs between tax cuts conferring lavish benefits on the most-well-off and reductions in programs upon which millions of Americans rely should be made clear. The public should be allowed to assess directly whether it wants the government to shrink programs related to health care, child care and protecting the environment so that millionaires can continue receiving tax cuts that cost tens of billions of dollars a year.

[FlemingsGhost]

1. The deficit isn't a moral issue, so it doesn't really matter

On the bright side, the institution of marriage is, at last, safe again.

[rodeodance]

2. but if frramed right-i.e. not caring for those who have no heat, medical

care, etc etc. Dems gotta get this message across!!!

[Moderator]

3. Clearly marked as Opinion

This is in the Opinion section of the WP.