Special Analysis:
The Sound Bite and the Fury

At a meeting today in New Hampshire of the Business and Industry Association, President Bush spoke about the 2007 federal budget. Striking a humane tone, he said, "I look behind the numbers and see the quality-of-life issues... Those of us who put [the budget] together really did see the human dimension." Allaying fears of gratuitous or harmful spending cuts, he pointedly emphasized that programs eliminated or whose budgets were reduced were those that hadn't produce results.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has even published a Website called ExpectMore.gov, which details what the Administration considers productive and unproductive agencies.

The record $2.8 trillion budget proposed for 2007 includes a nearly five percent increase in Pentagon spending to $439.3 billion and another five percent increase in spending on Homeland Security.

Only hours after the speech, Mr. Bush signed into law the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005—including as it does $39 billion in spending to cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidy programs, and student loans—thereby making good on his promise that only unproductive programs would face the budget cutting axe under his Administration.



The Dark Wraith is always grateful when the news, itself, renders scathing commentary anticlimactic.

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This article is cross-posted from The Dark Wraith Forums.