Let's talk about replacing GWBush in 2004.

Funny - I don't even think Bush has reached the first step. And all around him are the enablers.

Incidentally, my grandson told me tonight that his fifth grade class noticed Bush licks his lips a lot, and named him "Sponge Bob George." Add that to all his other attributes.

mama, And they are called "attributes?" In his case, that word sounds too complimentary. c.i.

"Happy Days are Here Again..."

President Bush will send Congress a $2.2 trillion budget for 2004 that projects record federal deficits and proposes a long-range plan to push military spending beyond $500 billion, officials say. Bush's fiscal blueprint will estimate this year's deficit at $307 billion, with the 2004 shortfall dipping only to $304 billion, said congressional and administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity. Until now, the historic high was $290 billion in 1992, when Bush's father was president.

Bush Budget Projects Record Deficits

The deficit amounts to less than 3% of the GDP. Percentage wise, it is really not particularly alarming, nor even truly noteworthy. Blanket dollar-figure comparisons are meaningless. In the 'Eighties, for instance, the deficit ran well over 6% of GDP for quite some time, though absolute dollar figures were below current totals. A phone call was a dime back then, too. How many individual Americans have a debt load less than 3% of their assets?



timber

timber, You're absolutely correct in showing the deficit compared to GDP. Dollar comparasons are meaningless. With a war looming, the amount projected as a national deficit is not alarming. However, this administration must do something to strengthen our economy at home, because the GDP is in danger of decreasing to dangerous levels, and deflation is a real possibility.
c.i.

c.i., I see real concerns for The Economy, and I hope the current militarist distractions will soon go away so attention can be foussed on other problems.

I take exception to "The Sky is Falling" allegations and inflamatory rhetorical handwringing which strive to create the impression of impending crisis in situations that are relatively insignificant issues. A 3% deficit on a 10.5+ Trillion Dollar Economy is a respectable figure, all right, but its still just 3%. None might be better, but 3% ain't so bad.



timber

timber, I'm not in the "the sky is falling" mode, yet. It's just my observation that consumer spending is slowing, consumeer debt is increasing, and businesses are still not investing in man and machinery. Companies are still laying off by the thousands, although they're not as frequent as two years ago. The travel industry is a good indicator of how much our economy has slowed down. I just worry about the general trends not showing any positive signs, and we still have over 40 million children in this country without health care. We're also going into our forth year with a bear market. Without confidence in the stock market, our economy has little chance of expansion. That's bad. c.i.

c.i., that $300 billion deficit is without war or any new medicare reforms. It is growing. The sky may not be falling, but we also have no one in power who really cares!

<Percentage wise, it is really not particularly alarming, nor even truly noteworthy.>

Look how quickly the enablers rushed in to make excuses for budget deficits, mama.

Here's something everyone should read. I've excerpted some, and linked at the bottom.

A picture emerges from the President's public statements--and even from such adulatory accounts as Bob Woodward's Bush at War and David Frum's The Right Man--of a President on a divine mission.

Call it messianic militarism.

He may have discarded the word "crusade," but it's a crusade that he's on. As former Bush speechwriter Frum puts it, "War has made him . . . a crusader after all."

While there's nothing wrong with a President trying to make the world a better place, when the man in the Oval Office feels divinely inspired to reshape the world through violent means, that's a scary prospect.

...

"Bush is very much into the apocalyptic and messianic thinking of militant Christian evangelicals," [Chip Berlet] says. "He seems to buy into the worldview that there is a giant struggle between good and evil culminating in a final confrontation. People with that kind of a worldview often take risks that are inappropriate and scary because they see it as carrying out God's will."

...

"What I hear is a holy trinity of militarism, masculinism, and messianic zeal," says Lee Quinby, professor of American Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. "It does follow the logic of apocalyptic thought, which has a religious base but is now secularized in the militaristic mode. Apocalyptic thought always has an element of instilling helplessness and promising victory in the face of that powerlessness. In this instance, Bush plays up the vulnerability we feel because of terrorism or Saddam Hussein and then accentuates the military as the assurance that our helplessness will be transformed." This kind of thinking, says Quinby, is "dangerous because it prepares a nation for war without thinking about the impact on civilians and on the U.S. soldiers."

...

This is way too much power to give to anyone, and George W. Bush has the arrogance that comes with such power. "I do not need to explain why I say things," he told Woodward. "That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

When his crusade goes terribly wrong, as it is likely to do, Bush will owe a lot of people an explanation.

Bush's Messiah Complex

How much difference is there between Bush's beliefs than those of the Muslim fundamentalists. He is just marching to a different drummer but carrying the same message.

au, Same drummer; both have lost their common sense. c.i.

c.i.

No, I would say both mesmerized by their religion. What could be worse?

amen. c.i.

au says:



It's EVIL fighting EVIL.

I've said it before, Bush is starting an Immoral War, if his accusations of Saddam are totally wrong - it is CRIMINAL, no Oops allowed here!

Actually, we would want to be careful with getting too efficient. Getting rid of deficits for a while is fine, we just don't want to get rid of all of the government's debt, because once we do that we have to decide what the government is going to OWN. That in my opinion is a dangerous road to go down.

tresspasser, that won't happen in our lifetimes (even if you were just borned yesterday)!

Running deficits is another theory (which, of course, occurs when one lowers taxes and increases spending!) to stimulate the economy. It has never been really proven to create any more than a small spike. And that seems to be, for instance, in the increase in military spending or what might be coming up, the space program where private enterprise gets government projects and begins hiring people back. I'd rather see the money spent on the space program rather than a war, but that's just me. There's sometime positive and uplifting to the morale when there's a goal that will be another giant step for mankind.

(War being a giant step backwards).

Which brings me to the subject of diplomacy -- why is it that failed diplomacy is never the fault of a U.S. administration? It's always the other guy. There's something tragically wrong there.

BillW, How does that saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" reconcile with GWBush and Saddam? c.i.

Sorry c.i., GWB is unreconcilable, he marches to different war drums than anybody else on earth! He thinks to answers to God only, he doesn't realize it is the Satan he worships!