The Washington Post reports that George Bush intends to place the responsibility for the federal budget problems on the Democrats. He's made the mess, but needs someone else to clean it up. Bush is also going to lie and pretend that he wants fiscal restraint:
When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.Of course Bush won't offer concessions. He just wants to cut taxes while we're at war -- a previously unheard of concept.
Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.
"The Democrats have assailed deficits under President Bush. The White House is telling Democrats to walk the walk," said Brian M. Riedl, a budget analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Budget experts and economists from across the political spectrum, including some who worked in the Bush White House, say that Bush is unlikely to offer real concessions toward a balanced budget in the plan he delivers to Congress next month.
Many Republicans, like George Bush, just don't understand how budgets work. He never had to. He was a trust fund kid. There was always more money available. Bush never understood that when he used credit cards, the bill had actually to be paid. Bush has maxed out America's credit cards by running up massive deficits every year and adding to our massive debt. Now, the debt has to be paid. Just like they did in the 90s, the Democrats will cut the credit cards and start paying down the debt. Democrats understand how budgets work in real families that's why they are better at managing the country's budget.
Of course, Bush wants to make this in to a political game. He is determined to destroy this country in every way he can.
