Read My Lips

So, Bush, I read today that you have made clear your intention NOT to raise taxes, even as you shower money on the Hurricane Katrina victims in order to salvage the shreds of your sagging reputation. And that you have no plans even to rescind some of those generous tax give-aways to the wealthy. You still haven't answered my question, though: just where is the money coming from? I've heard you expend a lot of your hot air, in the past few years, on the subject of curtailing government spending, but I haven't seen a single action to back up your words. Not a single veto from your desk. On another front, I guess you haven't quite maxed out our national credit card yet--although I suspect that our major creditors are beginning to worry about this country's fiscal responsibililty. You could borrow more, I suppose, and leave more for your successors to deal with for many years after you're gone.

When you talk about budget cuts, however--if ever you prove gutsy enough to actually enforce such discipline--there's some of us out here who wonder where you're going to get them from. There's the pork, of course. Some of those pet highway projects, like $150 million bridges going to nowhere. But this is still chicken feed, beside the estimated $200 need--and this, while the costs of your endlessly expensive war continue to escalate. So I guess you'll be looking to Medicare and other social services to take up the slack. I mean, what else is there? The military? You could drop that ridiculous star wars defense plan. But somehow, I don't hold out much hope for such wisdom from you, Bush. I very much fear the cuts will end up coming out of the hide of the poor and needy. I fear they will serve to further downgrade the already disgracefully meager dole we hand out so reluctantly to our children's educational needs. I fear they will further damage a precarious health system, and render medical services unreachable to many more Americans.

Is this what you plan, Bush? Or do you not, frankly, have a plan? Is it all by the seat of your pants? Is it all what you think you can get away with?