Drowning in Debt

President Bush has not only ruled out any tax increases to pay for the estimated $200 billion federal relief and recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina, he continues to push for more tax reductions--specfically, to make permanent the cuts he previously sold to Congress with sunset clauses, which would cost $1.4 trillion over the next decade.

The Republicans will try to cut social programs for the poor and elderly across the nation even while Bush proclaims he is trying to help the poor and elderly in New Orleans and the gulf. It's Robin Hood in Bizzaro World: they will be robbing the poor to give to the poor. But the trouble is, even if they manage to squeeze a few billion out of the unemployed and uninsured, there is no way in hell they can find anywhere close to the two hundred billion required.

Even House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R), that paragon of compassion, says that there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget. "My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet." According to the Washington Times, when Delay was asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good." Thus, as the Director of White House National Economic Council Al Hubbard said on Friday, the result will be that we add to the defecit.

And that's like throwing water on a drowning man. According to the Bureau of Public Debt (part of the Treasury Dep't), as of 9/15/2005, the national debt as of September 15, 2001 was: $7,918,009,471,434.33. Bush and the Republican Congress have added $2.2 Trillion dollars to the national debt so far--that's $15,000 every single second. At this rate, the federal debt will reach $10 trillion before Bush leaves office--and that doesn't include any funds for the Katrina Recovery, the additional tax cuts, or any other disasters that are likely to bust the budget before 2009.

But here's the worst part: our public debt is now snowballing out of control. The federal budget defecit for FY05 (not including Katrina) amounts to $400 billion in new public debt, while our interest payments for FY05 on the existing public debt were $336 billion! You read that right: nearly all the money we are borrowing on one credit card is going to pay interest on another. That's the oldest financial mistake in the book! Didn't our MBA President take Economics 101? Don't the Republicans know anything about money?