Rollerball

Title
Bush's new budget freezes most domestic programs

Link
Official: Bush's 2009 budget to be tight - Yahoo! News
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Excerpt

WASHINGTON - President Bush's 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs.

Bush will propose nearly $178 billion in savings from Medicare over five years_ nearly triple what he proposed last year. An additional $17 billion would come from the Medicaid program, the state-federal partnership that provides health coverage to the poor.

The president has promised a plan that would erase the budget deficit by 2012 if his policies are followed.

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Comment:

Cutting $17 billion from health care for the poor. I wonder how that translates into number of sick children that won't be able to receive care?

And only four years to erase the deficit that took him eight years to create. IF his policies are followed. So right off the bat he's got someone to blame IF they don't continue his policies.

Why doesn't he just declare war on anyone making less than $50,000 a year and be done with it?

Shake

We knew going in Bush was the champion of wealthy whites and only wealthy whites.

Shake

Or change absolutely nothing in the case of Hillary, as she is a Republican.

Facts are facts: there must be a tax increase. Debts do not pay themselves, and trickle-down is an obvious failure.

cheapseats

Windfall Profits taxes.

Extraordinary Estate taxes. Something on the order of 90%, on estates over ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS doesn't seem extreme to me. Buncha billionaires will be kicking the bucket before long.

Tax the Churches, insofar as they are PLAINLY not separate from the State and insofar as Christians will CLEARLY want to do their patriotic bit.

Normalize marijuana and hemp.

Get the hell out of Iraq.

I see daylight.

And I have STILL neither heard nor read a persuasive argument against a flat income tax ABOVE SOME SUBSISTENCE LEVEL OF INCOME. We should have some numbers soon that we can crunch.

__________________

CosmicRocker

... for Defense Dept??

NASA ( i offer the Florida perspective) has asked for 1 billion over the next 2 years to keep the "brain drain" from happening as the Shuttle Progrm ends in 2010.

The Constellation Program ( not even on the drawing board yet) is SUPPOSED to be online for 2015.

That's a 5 year gap without access to space.
And you KNOW the Constellation program will be delayed - it's the nature of spacecraft development.

So NASA would like $1.000.000.000 to keep the scientists, and workers from leaving, and having to go thru a re-hire program, which is inherently more expensive than keeping ppl on staff.

Bush's budget gives them $230,000,000.

not enought to do anything with.

could we scrape together an extra 3/4 of billion for these guys?
do we value space programs , that have literally changed the way we live on earth, eneough to pay this fee?

Of course not. wars are a terrible drain on lives and men - but Bush will "have his wars"

__________________

Try a little love. and it cant go wrong
Get on the right thing
My little love, you cant go wrong
Get on the right thing .

The_Heretic

No, it's the nature of government contrctors. Burt Rutan's problem was ahead of his own schedule and under his original planned budget. Then again he also couldn't demand corporate handouts from the government.

The problem is no one's asked NASA to earn their money.

What NASA needs to is stop trying to interfer with other space programs in the U.S., and let slip their monopoly.

__________________
"Enough!!" -so rang Barack Obama's voice off the walls of Mile High Stadium

Shake

The most basic is that there is no longer incentive to improve one's lot via homeownership, education, etc. The refunds/writeoffs are a carrot.