Total Failure -The Budget Priority

Having spent all he can on his cronies and contributors, the cretin in chief has thrown a phantasmagorical budget at us that is good for laughs at best. He doesn't count in his wars, and is nudging medicaid onto the states.

...the fact remains that the purported surplus on which Mr. Bush based his tax-cutting agenda was always something of a mirage, and the president has never been willing to adjust his agenda to the grim new fiscal reality. Yesterday's promise of a small surplus by 2012 is once again premised on omitting likely costs (zero is budgeted for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) and by assuming cuts to domestic spending that are unachievable politically and, in large part, unwise as a matter of policy.

As always, Mr. Bush pledges to press ahead with his tax-cutting agenda: another $2.4 trillion over the next decade, $3.7 trillion if relief from the alternative minimum tax is included. The president argues that failing to extend his previous tax cuts would result in an average tax increase of $1,800. But Mr. Bush neglects to point out that the overwhelming share of the tax cuts go to the wealthiest Americans. The top 1 percent of households -- those with incomes of more than $450,000 -- would get 31 percent of the benefits, with tax cuts averaging $67,000 by 2012. And Mr. Bush does not even propose fully paying for these cuts: The budget he submitted yesterday envisions another $397 billion in deficit spending over the next five years because it would devote more money to tax cuts than it would cut in spending.

Mr. Bush inherited a potential windfall -- and squandered it. The next president will inherit his mess.

In Texas, the realization that taxes are not just being raised on all of us, but also on the states, is a hard blow.

President Bush rolled out a $3.1 trillion budget Monday that boosts funding for the military while cutting projected spending for Medicare and Medicaid, proposals that would have a noticeable impact in Texas.
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Mr. Bush proposed eliminating all or part of 151 federal programs, some of which provide assistance to state and local governments, saving $18 billion in 2009. They include funding to house noncitizens in state prisons, which provides about $26 million for Texas, and grants for undergraduate students, which provide about $22 million to Texans, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.

Overall, federal grants to Texas would total almost $27 billion in 2009, about 2.3 percent more than in 2008.

But the state would see reduced funding from federal grants for highway planning and construction, foster care, anti-poverty programs and subsidized housing. The administration proposes to eliminate the social-services block grant, which would take away $38 million in 2009. Texas uses the money to pay for long-term care and adult protective services.

The state's allotment of community development block grants, a prized source of aid for nonprofits and local governments, would drop from $250 million in 2008 to $190 million in 2009.

Grants for programs such as child protection, child care and children's health care would remain at 2008 levels. Texas' share of funding for some social services, including subsidized school lunch and breakfast programs, would increase.

On Medicare, which provides care to the elderly, projected savings would come from freezing increases in reimbursement rates to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers. Those reimbursements are typically adjusted for inflation.
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"The president writes only in red ink, having never submitted to Congress a balanced budget," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin, a member of the House Budget Committee. "He piles on more debt to fund his misguided foreign policy while neglecting so many needs at home."

In his usual reverse Robin Hood fashion, the war criminal at our helm will take away working, worthwhile programs from the needy and give more of the nation's wealth from its citizens to the leeches that work for profits instead of worth.

I am joining Diane, the criminality is leaving me speechless. Rep. Doggett says it better than I ever could.
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In an encouraging development, the Navy has been held answerable to law, and will need to let sea life off of California live.

A federal judge in California on Monday reinstated a series of provisions meant to protect whales from high-powered sonar during military exercises in the Pacific Ocean.

The decision was a rebuke to an effort by the Bush administration to exempt the Navy from those rules and from federal law.

The decision, by Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of Federal District Court, found that the administration’s Council on Environmental Quality had overreached on Jan. 15 when it cited “urgent national security reasons” to approve weaker rules for the exercises.

My best regard goes to the judge for enforcing law that all of us should follow.