Spend trillions, Cut Programs
Part I
Cheney: Social Security Plan to Cost Trillions
“Cheney acknowledged yesterday that the federal government would need to borrow trillions of dollars over the next few decades to cover the cost of the personal retirement accounts at the heart of President Bush’s plan to restructure Social Security.
Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Cheney said the government would have to borrow $754 billion over the next 10 years, and conceded that the price tag would involve borrowing trillions of dollars more in subsequent decades.”
Part II
“$2.57 trillion budget that eliminates dozens of politically sensitive domestic programs, including funding for education, environmental protection and business development, while proposing significant increases for the military and international spending.”
“About 150 programs in all would be shuttered or radically cut back to help meet Bush’s goal of shaving the budget deficit in half by 2009. One out of every three of the targeted programs concerns education.”
“The spending plan does not include future expenses of the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, nor does it include upfront transition costs of restructuring Social Security as Bush has proposed.”
Part III
Agenda: Tax cuts to the rich and to corporations, privatizing of government programs making us a fascist form of government, return of total slash and burn consumer capitalism, destruction of the environment, hatred mongering under the guise of morality, etc etc
Any questions?
I know. It just doesn’t make sense.
I also live how many of the budget cuts are going to disproportionately affect Red State America. Bye-bye farm subsidies. Turns out Chinese corn is just as good as your corn, and it’s a hell of a lot cheaper! So, screw you! Thanks for your vote.
Concerning the agenda put forth in part three:
Tax cuts to the rich must be your way of saying “Thank you, Mr. President for the lowered tax bracket I used last year and I am about to use this year. Thank you for the tax credits that you have given to me, and every other family in America (those who actually pay taxes at least), and most importantly, thank you for putting forth an agenda that brought the country out of a recession and continues to grow it as we speak.
As far as corporations are concerned, your (implied) lack of understanding of the “tax cuts to corporations” comment concerns me. First, and most importantly, corporations do not pay taxes. (While you gasp in dismay I shall type on.) Corporations are what you could call a pass through entity. That is that they collect taxes from you, the consumer, and pass them on to the government for you. For instance, P&G sells a widget for $10. Included in that $10 is the taxes that you are paying the government via P&G. The $10 also includes profit, raw materials, labor, overhead (which may include the cost of processing, filing, auditing, etc. for taxes.) I have said all of this to say that if P&G gets a tax cut, break or loophole, they therefore need to collect less in taxes for the widget and therefore, you pay less . A tax break for P&G is a tax break for you!
Silly one – I am not talking about tax collected! I am talking about taxes on property and profits. Oh, if only the savings that corporations see got passed down to you and me… hee hee hee. In the last 20 years, the top corporate folks have gone from making about 67-70x that of their skilled workers to 1000x more. Oh, in both directions – workers paid less and owners taking much much much much much more. Enron, where the thieves have gotten away with about the same amount they caused others to lose, is only one example. They REALLY pushed it – but it’s not really necessary to do that. You see – what is being pulled out of our system, more than anything else, are any blockages to pure unadulterated greed.