Bush gets my vote for greatest amount of Chutzpah in 2006. Chutzpah, for the non-Jews out there, is most closely translated as unmitigated gall. The old tongue in cheek explanation is that a teen who kills his parents and then pleads with the judge for mercy because he is an orphan is displaying Chutzpah. This leads in perfectly to the topic at hand.
This President has presided over the most irresponsible fiscal record in history. His administration, along with his cronies in the Republican congress, turned several years of surplus federal government budgets delivered by the previous administration into massive deficits. This is the same President who thought it was a good idea to implement tax cuts at the same time he increased spending.
After six years of spending a lot more than the government was taking in, now Bush wants to tell the incoming Democratic congress that they have to be fiscally responsible (See this CNN report on Bush's remarks today, http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/12/16/bush.address.ap/index.html ).
I often think that people like Coulter and Bush are going to one day call a press conference and tell people that everything they have been doing and saying was a big act, a joke, a science experiment, a hoax to see if they could get away with it without anyone calling them on it or impeaching them. I thought it could be sort of a psychology experiment writ large.
I mean, really, how could this be taken seriously? This is the same President who only a year ago signed into law the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which included $223 million for the Gravina Island Bridge in Alaska, also known as "The Bridge to Nowhere". Nor is the Bridge to Nowhere the only significant item of wastefulness in the bill.
I am guessing that President Bush wants us to forget the Billions of dollars wasted in both the Iraq and New Orleans reconstruction projects. An inspector general audit report that came out 11 months ago and was reported on CNN "Audit: U.S. lost track of $9 billion in Iraq funds" detailed over $9 Billion (yes, that is with a 'B') in unaccounted for Iraq reconstruction funds http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/01/30/iraq.audit/ . The Katrina response was mishandled so badly with such a lack of oversight on money spent that an entire Katrina Fraud task force had to be formed by the Attorney General to address all of the issues, see http://www.usdoj.gov/katrina/Katrina_Fraud/index.html .
An MSNBC report on the subject, "Audits: Millions of dollars in Katrina aid wasted" last February detailed how bad just the facts that had come to light at that time were, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11326973/ including:
- The $2,000 debit cards issued to hurricane evacuees for emergency supplies were often used for purchases unrelated to disaster aid, including: adult entertainment, gambling, a $450 tattoo, a .45-caliber handgun for $1,300 and a diamond engagement ring for $1,100. - There was little or no verification of the names, addresses or Social Security numbers of applicants registering by phone or the Internet for the $2,000 in aid, resulting in thousands of checks issued to those with duplicate or bogus information. Duplicate payments were made to about 5,000 of the nearly 11,000 debit card recipients who received Katrina aid, first with debit cards and then again via electronic bank transfer. - Although FEMA says it bought 114,341 trailers for $1.7 billion, discrepancies abound in FEMA's documentation of the number ordered, received and occupied, making it difficult to ascertain the exact units available or whether government-owned property was otherwise accounted for. - FEMA may have bought too many temporary homes - 24,967 manufactured homes obtained for $857.8 million and 1,295 modular homes at $40 million - resulting in 10,777 such homes sitting empty in Hope, Ark., in sinking mud without proper storage. "It was unclear how the decision was made," the Homeland Security audit stated.
The above are just a small taste of the hundreds of examples in which the federal response was negligent in its oversight of the funds allocated to the rebuilding efforts.
Somehow, with all of this wastefulness and failure on his record, Bush thinks he has the authority to lecture the incoming Democratic congress. Here are some choice experts from his speech today on the topic:
- "When you decide how to spend your paycheck, you have to set priorities and live within your means. Congress needs to do the same thing with the money you send to Washington"
- "Over the past year, the republican congress succeeded in eliminating virtually all earmarks for three major Cabinet Departments"
- "This is a good start, but Congress needs to do much more. My administration will soon lay out a series of reforms that will help make earmarks more transparent, that will hold the members who propose earmarks more accountable, and that will help reduce the number of earmarks inserted into large spending bills"
- "I respect Congress' authority over the public purse, but the time has come to reform the earmark process and dramatically reduce their number. Reforming earmarks is the responsibility of both political parties"
Steven Leser specializes in Politics, Science & Health, and Entertainment topics. He has held positions within the Democratic Party including District Chair and Public Relations Chair within county organizations.
Steven Leser writes for www.opednews.com, an internet only media site that has grown to become one of the highest traffic news sites in America, reaching more traffic, according to alexa.com, than all but the thirty largest daily newspapers in the US. Mr. Leser is one of the 500+ liberal pundits who, each month, are published in what has become one of the top five Liberal/progressive media sites in the US.
is only one aspect of George Bushs' contempt for our governmental processess and its role in our daily lives. While Reagan was the first President to crack the one Trillion dollar mark in deficit spending most of his debt was incurred to domestic institutions. Georgie has borrowed beyonD Ronnie's record setting number and done so by borrowing from foreign institutions and governments. The USA is almost a wholely owned subsidiary of Saudi Arabia and China. Should these nations and others decline to continue to purchase our bonds, they could force an economic collapse of such proportions as to make the so-called Great Depression a slight hiccup.
Another area where Bushs' hand and his contempt is evident is in his myriad appointments of those who raised large sums for the Republican party to key chairs in the administration. For example; the Bureau of Mine Safety is in the hands of the former CEO of the second largest mine in America, one whose safety record was abysmal, the very worst among companies of equal size. This gentleman reduced the amount of fines and penalties for unsafe mine operations to a level comparable to a speeding ticket, thus we see mine accidents in which lives are lost because it is cheaper to pay the fine than make the repair.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Sunday, December 17, 2006 at 8:28:08 AM
They have a solution to that problem. The printing press. That's right, they press as much money as they need to pay their debts. The dollar is sinking faster than the titanic.
by
Han (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 204 comments)
on Sunday, December 17, 2006 at 5:50:24 PM
As long as China, Saudi Arabia et all continue to buy our bonds the economy of the USA is still afloat. That we are at the mercy of such as those is disquieting, that our gross national product is still around ten trillion a year is quieting.
We are long, long overdue for a rebalancing of the economy of the world and we are seeing such. Oil is still traded in dollars you might understand and thus it is still to everyones benefit to keep the dollar somewhat solvent. Bush is definitely causing our economy much distress, he is after all an idiot of the lowest order.....
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Monday, December 18, 2006 at 6:16:03 PM
3 comments
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