I missed Bush's Katrina speech last night. That's mainly due to the fact that I don't yet have a TV in my new apartment, but partly because I already knew what he was going to say. Today Andrew Sullivan echoes that feeling:
I guess I wasn't the only one who decided to skip watching the president live last night. Across the blogosphere, it seems as if many others decided to catch it later, or on the web, or just read the transcript. Why? Because I knew what was coming: an attempt at spiritual uplift, greased by billions and billions that we don't have, organized by a federal government that, under Bush, cannot seem to organize anything competently. I'm not saying we don't need to spend money on the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. I'm saying I don't want to hear it from this guy.
It's almost difficult to get motivated in opposition to the constant screw-ups and almost intentional mismanagement perpetrated by this administration. Perhaps that's the goal: wear down liberals to the point of exhaustion (Of course, The Onion was on top of this a while ago). But how can we really trust this administration to do the right thing anymore? Iraq is idling along at the same deadly pace, the federal budget deficit continues to grow, and as a Category 4 hurricane rolled over a city situated below sea level, this White House sat on its hands while refusing to play the "blame game" (note to the wise: the only people who don't want to play a "blame game" are the people who are usually to blame).
But what's the solution? Eliminating the Estate Tax on the wealthy so that those who are worth more than $1.5 million don't have to worry about passing on their extreme wealth to their family. Adding another $200 billion to the federal budget for Katrina-related reconstruction while making no cuts in spending (note to senators: you "earmarked" $25 billion on the recent transportation bill for pet projects. Look there!).
Is this all a trap, as one of my more astute commenters has suggested? Are Republicans just letting the budget get out of control so responsible Democrats will have to start cutting government? If so, let's fall into that trap. The myth out there is that Democrats are pro-spending and Republicans are not. But look at this 100% Republican government that we've had for five years: massive additional spending - greater than the rate of spending growth under a Democratic Congress (if you can remember when that was) - but all on Republican-favored projects. Republicans are spendthrifts just as much as Democrats used to be. The difference is that Republicans insist on cutting taxes at the same time, driving America into even further debt.
Someone needs to be responsible here. Right now, the Democrats are the only ones willing to think about the future of this country. Republicans may have wanted to starve the beast (they used to, I'm not so convinced of that anymore), but pretty soon America is set to die of fiscal starvation. That may please the likes of Grover Norquist, but those who care about this country will be stuck with the dreary reality.
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