Hey, the House Republicans have unveiled their budget! What do you need to know about it?
Well, unlike Bush’s budget, this one figures in the cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s right, $50 billion has been factored in! Now it may be true that the first two years of war in Iraq alone has run us a tidy $150 billion and change, but… well, a lot of that was start-up costs. If we encourage our men and women overseas to stop drinking so much water and maybe take up subsistence farming as a hobby, there’s no reason why we can’t expect that $50 billion to cover the tab.
Another area of interest is these two items, which I’ll present next to each other for your convenience:
“The spending blueprint orders lawmakers to find $69 billion over five years in savings from automatic spending programs such as the Medicaid health care for the poor, student loans and agriculture programs.”
and
“The Republican budget plan includes $106 billion to pay for tax cuts over the next five years.”
Just so we have our priorities straight.
But there’s a lot of good news here - the deficit’s only going to be $376 billion! I mean, assuming that the Senate doesn’t add in any more spending measures (and why would they?) and that the nothing unforeseen happens in the nation or the world (and what’s the risk of that happening?) and that our soldiers finally show some fiscal discipline and keep it to one MRE a day and maybe wash their own damned uniforms and stop whining about fripperies like body armor… assuming those things, we’re looking at a deficit that’s merely tremendously gigantically colossally huge.
Which, er, would be a little daunting. If deficits mattered. But they don’t. They make headlines, sure, but so what? That’s just the liberal media elite talking. You’ll note that not one of those “budget deficit” headlines had anything to say about the greatness of America, about our core moral values, about freedom being on the march, or about the power of faith. Interesting omissions, no?
Yeah, the deficit stuff you’ll be readin about is just the squawking of hairy liberal accountants hugging gay trees and spouting fuzzy, senior-scaring, terrorist math. With those types it’s important to remember to hate the spin but love the spinner. They’re misguided. Pray for them.





27 comments
toni
March 9, 2005 at 5:01 pm
1A-men!
Murray
March 9, 2005 at 6:02 pm
2I’m sort of surprised that the budget doesn’t include an anticipated $375 Billion gift from God because he is so happy and proud of the Republican law makers who have pushed his agenda with such righteousness.
See, a balanced budget! Who said they couldn’t do miracles?
tess
March 9, 2005 at 9:11 pm
3So it’s going to fall from the sky as a gift from Loster, much the same way a friend of mine expects to meet women?
dee
March 9, 2005 at 9:14 pm
4Well if the deficit gets so bad that it interferes with our ability to take care of our basic needs of defense, healthcare, education and housing, we can always declare bankruptcy.
Oh.
Never mind.
Mike Z
March 10, 2005 at 12:28 am
5gay trees, Adam?
Bob
March 10, 2005 at 12:35 am
6I think he meant Gay Talese.
Farberwear
March 10, 2005 at 8:02 am
7No, no… he meant gay trees. You know, with their hot pistil on pistil action and disgusting stamen on stamen ungodliness.
You know what is really great about this budget? Me neither.
Kelli
March 10, 2005 at 8:57 am
8Adam,
You brighten my day. I have neve seen the adjectives “fuzzy” and “terrorist” used to describe the same noun.
If life weren’t so scary it would be funny. Oh, what the hell, its funny anyway.
shelley
March 10, 2005 at 10:18 am
9I think you meant lesbian trees. All those wood nymphs, out hugging each other? Must put a stop to that!
As for the budget, I feel rather queasy now. I used to think my two-year old would be paying off this war; now I’m thinking it’s going to be her great-grandchildren.
bramster
March 10, 2005 at 11:01 am
10Shelley: You may find your 2-year old fighting “this war”, 14 or 15 years from now!
Mary
March 10, 2005 at 11:08 am
11I think the “gay tress” and “hate the spin but love the spinner” lines are pure genius. How did Adam ever loose the election?
ECS
March 10, 2005 at 11:13 am
12If there are any more tax cuts, I’m going to have to go on welfare. I don’t care if my income taxes go down if I have no income because I was laid off because the tax revenues that support my employer dried up…
ECS
March 10, 2005 at 11:14 am
13I’m growing gay trees in my back yard, right next to the medical marijuana.
Bob
March 10, 2005 at 11:48 am
14What’s great about this budget? Everything! It’s like sharing a bank account with a bunch of hillbillies who think they can spend more money because they’re not out of checks yet. Kind of liberating, you’ve got to admit.
Jerry
March 10, 2005 at 12:20 pm
15Huge error in the post: “…senior scaring, terrorist math” is the exclusive province of the Republicans!
Farberware - ROTFL (if I used that cutesie lingo!)
Bob - scary! Cuz ya know they ain’t never gonna be out’a checks!
dee - double the dings in one comment! Great! Wish it were funny! As in “Ha, ha!” Ya know?
Allison in Santa Cruz
March 10, 2005 at 3:53 pm
16Kelli - There’s “funny” as in humorous and “funny” as in so tragic you have to laugh anyways. Adam has the uncanny gift of pulling off the former while pointing out the latter.
Dee, Murray, and Tess - You guys continue to make me want to both laugh and cry. Or scream in frustration.
PC Pete
March 10, 2005 at 4:37 pm
17So, let me see if I’ve got this right. Your lawmakers (and I’m using the Royal “your”, as in “Your son got detention again today, dear”) are going to give you $106b over 5 years in tax cuts, of which only $37b has to come from increased taxes, Acts of Lobster, and Iraqi Oil Income (once you figure out a way to reliably get the oil from Iraqi ground to Iraqi oil terminals)? Whinge, whinge, whinge. I don’t know, you young people today wouldn’t know a REAL deficit if it hijacked a dog and bit you on the arse.
Adam has it right - you could easily save $37b if you just gave the troops less choice. I mean, who needs to choose which delicious, nutritious MRE they’re going to have today - let them eat “5 fingers of death”. Or they could just have the Lobster…
Or maybe if BCR (Bush and/or Cheney and/or Rumsfeld) stopped making Thanksgiving drop-ins for the troops in Far Far Away, a small saving could be made in airfares for BCR plus bodyguards plus media (not you, Adam) plus spinners (Lobster bless ‘em).
Quick, everyone go to your happy place (while you can still afford it…)
PC Pete
March 10, 2005 at 4:44 pm
18Hey Tess, how much luck does your friend have collecting fallin’ women? As my Islamic name testifies (”I Bin Waitin”), I’m not having any success at all. Of course, my wife (She Who Makes The Earth Tremble) thinks I’m just stargazing… oh, I’m gonna pay for that…
Jerry
March 10, 2005 at 4:58 pm
19Oh, Lobster, PC Pete. As freaking awful as all this is here at home (and, quite likely, in the enfreed Iraq), it is so much worse and humiliating when someone like you writes and reminds me that we are doing this in public. Sorry, world. Nearly half of us tried to prevent this crap, and a fair percentage of those who voted “values (find a newspeak dictionary)” now oppose what our Yellow Rose is doing, surprised, I guess, that he is doing with a vengance what he did the first fur years.
hedera
March 10, 2005 at 11:29 pm
20And on the subject of the “anticipated $37 billion gift from God”, Murray - I heard a wonderful interview this weekend with the British author of a book on the Armada, entitled “The confident hope of a miracle”, or words to that effect. Yes, I’m talking 16th century; stay with me here. The author contends that the Armada lost, not for any of the official reasons (storm, plucky Englishmen defending the fair isle, etc.), but for the simple reason that Drake had: better ships, better guns, and better trained crews. Furthermore, the Spanish KNEW all this; but Philip II of Spain was absolutely convinced that God was on his side and God would support everything he did. So he sent I think 5 Armadas in “The Confident Hope of a Miracle”, all of which came to sticky ends, starting with the first one. The Armada ships were the only ones that came to serious grief in that fabled storm, because Drake had just kicked their slats in. Does this sound like anybody we know out there?? Just a little familiar?
Jerry
March 11, 2005 at 5:07 am
21Gee, hedera, it does seem vaguely familiar…maybe a quote from the book will help my memory: “hell in the forecastle and the devil at the helm.” Oh…yeah…
Murray
March 11, 2005 at 9:19 am
22hedera,
Best I can tell Bush felt certain that he could go into Iraq, remove Sadam, and bring about an American loving democracy, with little to no loss of American lives. The same God that miraculously put him in office with a minority of votes could do the same for him in his foreign policy.
1500 American soldiers dead. That’s a surprise.
overland
March 11, 2005 at 3:19 pm
23The Bush League doesn’t have to worry about deficits. They expect the Rapture to occur and pull them out of the mess they created. One wonders if the Ultimate Decision will be made on the basis of violating Thou Shalt Not Steal; if they are, it will be the Bush League starring in the Left Behind Series.
hedera
March 11, 2005 at 11:29 pm
24I have always been terrified of people who believe God is on their side. I don’t know why the conviction that God loves you should make you feel you can hammer down everybody else. Whatever happened to “there but for the grace of Lobster go I?” Back when I took the entrance exams for Cal - when you were expected to pick a subject and produce a 500 word essay on it, on the spot - the subject I picked was the phrase, “If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.” Still true, alas; as you say, Murray, the worrisome thing about W is that he really did believe all that, and I still don’t think he understands why it didn’t work out that way.
Great quote, Jerry - if that’s from the book I really must get it and read it. Remember, all I claimed to have heard was a review on the radio.
Jerry
March 12, 2005 at 5:47 pm
25hedera -
I treasure your comments here! Your post inspired me to look up the quote (from Voltaire, I discovered!) The rest from the same source seems appropriate!
“Let us therefore reject all superstition in order to become more human; but in speaking against fanaticism, let us not imitate the fanatics: they are sick men in delirium who want to chastise their doctors. Let us assuage their ills, and never embitter them, and let us pour drop by drop into their souls the divine balm of toleration, which they would reject with horror if it were offered to them all at once.”
hedera
March 13, 2005 at 12:35 am
26Jerry - Wow. In all these years it never occurred to me to look the stupid quote up and see who originally said it. I’m not, however, surprised to find myself in agreement with Voltaire; I usually am.
PC Pete
March 13, 2005 at 2:53 pm
27Hmmm. I never thought I’d see Voltaire quoted in reference to the US deficit. But I’m really glad you did.
I’m sure W, if he considered Voltaire (and his cousin, Ampere) at all, would class him as just one of those cheese-eating surrender monkeys…
Once again, those most in need of such assistance are the first to refute it. Now I’m thinking of the AA prayer…