Spend Spend Spend

Fiscal responsibility? I still don't see Bush demonstrating any restraint. There are voices in the Republican party calling for it, but they certainly aren't the majority. And the Democrats have never seen a spending measure that they didn't like.

In all, Mr. Bush proposes spending $2.77 trillion in fiscal 2007 -- assuming he needs only $50 billion in supplemental funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, an amount that falls short of current spending. That works out to 20.1% of the gross domestic product, or the total amount of goods and services produced in the U.S. He expects revenue, after some tweaking of the tax code and some new fees, to reach $2.42 trillion, a 5.7% increase from this year. That would bring total revenue to 17.6% of GDP.

Oh my aching back. I'm not seeing much logic in further tax cuts with this. You can't reduce taxes and spend more. It just doesn't work that way.

Spending on Social Security would climb 5.6% to $581 billion next year -- all of it needed to pay benefits already provided by current law. Spending on the Medicare and Medicaid health-insurance programs for the elderly, disabled and poor would climb 10.4% to $592 billion. Mr. Bush proposes changes to the two programs, but they would save only $3.2 billion next year, and $40.8 billion over five years -- about 1.2% of the programs' projected five-year spending.

By contrast, annual congressional spending outside of defense and homeland security would be cut below this year's level, cuts that would be magnified by inflation. Much of that money, which constitutes about a sixth of federal spending, is targeted at the poor.

Social Security isn't even in discussion any more, so that albatross will continue pulling us down. As for the spending restraint that targets the poor, I just don't see how much you can pull out before you start causing an impact on society. Cuts in areas like Medicare and Medicaide aren't going to provide enough balance to the funding increases.

The deficit would fall to $354 billion, or 2.6% of GDP -- but only if Congress accepts all of Mr. Bush's money-saving proposals, which it likely won't, and doesn't add any other spending or tax breaks. The deficit for the current year is expected to be about $423 billion, or 3.2% of GDP.

So the annual deficit won't be as heavy as it was last year, but it still will exist. That is until the Pork and earmarks get tagged on from the congressional buddy system. It makes you wonder if we'll ever see a responsible government again.

Increases in Homeland Security and the Border Patrol make some sense, but the issue of illegal immigration still hasn't been addressed which makes one wonder how these increases will help if we can't even have allowances for workers to enter the country who are needed. I'd also would hope for a effectiveness review of some of the newer spending on homeland security. Throwing money at a problem doesn't commonly solve it, and I'd conjecture a lot of waste exists out there under the present system.

Fiscal responsibility, as practiced today, will sooner or later catch up to us. The present policy makers either don't understand this, or just don't care.