[eric_b]

More money for the Pentagon/military, less for everyone else.

Not really surprising, is it?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... htm?csp=24

[Specop_007]

Nothing in that article bothers me, except the higher costs for veterans.

[pepper2000]

<I>The departments of <B>Education</B>, Commerce, Interior and <B>Energy</B> — will see their budgets, on average, frozen or cut slightly below today's already austere levels.</I>

I guess the State of the Union was a bunch of empty promises after all. The future doesn't matter any more in America.

[Tyler_JC]

We're broke!

These deficits are huge and mounting.

What are you expecting?

A massive tax hike to pay for a massive expansion of our infrastructure? Try getting that past Joe Sixpack in an election year.

Bush Senior lost to Clinton because of his 1990 tax hike. If Bush Junior attempted anything even close to what his father did...the GOP might as well just hand over the keys to Capital Hill.

So without a tax hike or a cut in Medicare (impossible), Social Security (unthinkable), debt payment (illegal), or the military (we're fighting several wars, remember?) Bush has no choice but to cut other spending.

Or we could just keep bleeding red ink until the world cuts us off.

I dislike some of the cuts, but we don't really have a choice. Frankly I think we could slim the Pentagon's budget a little to keep the DOE fully funded. But some of these other programs have to disappear. We're overextended and on the verge of bankruptcy unless something changes...FAST.

[eric_b]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tyler_JC', 'W')e're broke!

These deficits are huge and mounting.

What are you expecting?

A massive tax hike to pay for a massive expansion of our infrastructure? Try getting that past Joe Sixpack in an election year.

Bush Senior lost to Clinton because of his 1990 tax hike. If Bush Junior attempted anything even close to what his father did...the GOP might as well just hand over the keys to Capital Hill.

So without a tax hike or a cut in Medicare (impossible), Social Security (unthinkable), debt payment (illegal), or the military (we're fighting several wars, remember?) Bush has no choice but to cut other spending.

Or we could just keep bleeding red ink until the world cuts us off.

I dislike some of the cuts, but we don't really have a choice. Frankly I think we could slim the Pentagon's budget a little to keep the DOE fully funded. But some of these other programs have to disappear. We're overextended and on the verge of bankruptcy unless something changes...FAST.

[LadyRuby]

It's going to take both spending cuts and tax increases.

Yes, INCREASE TAXES, don't be afraid ....

[silveredwings]

I fantasize a future where our leaders have the power to stand up to big oil and cut off the subsidies and favored treatment, where we don't have to send our sons, daughters and hard-to-come-by earnings to fight other countries' wars, and where the renuable energy technologies we develop instead are so much more valuable than petroleum that not only do we have a balanced world trade but the middle-east can no longer fund terrorism.

Naw, that's crazy talkin'. So much for daring to dream. We could never figure all that out. Besides, our kids don't deserve a world in which they can survive, do they?

[oilfreeandhappy]

Well said Silveredwings. I couldn't agree with you more.
Jim
http://home.comcast.net/~oil_free_and_happy/

[Cobra_Strike]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pepper2000', '&')lt;I>The departments of <B>Education</B>, Commerce, Interior and <B>Energy</B> — will see their budgets, on average, frozen or cut slightly below today's already austere levels.</I>

I guess the State of the Union was a bunch of empty promises after all. The future doesn't matter any more in America.

[Liamj]

To bankrupt government suits the private profiteers just fine, watch as we all let it happen and deliver ourselves into serfdom.

[UIUCstudent01]

There was something recently something about selling national forested land to pay for the education cuts.

I'm too lazy to google it..

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UIUCstudent01', 'T')here was something recently something about selling national forested land to pay for the education cuts.

[TommyJefferson]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UIUCstudent01', 'T')here was something recently something about selling national forested land to pay for the education cuts.

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TommyJefferson', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UIUCstudent01', 'T')here was something recently something about selling national forested land to pay for the education cuts.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TommyJefferson', 'I') am surrounded my federally owned "National Forest Land". It's about as much a "forest" as my front lawn.

[hippiegunlover]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('UIUCstudent01', 'T')here was something recently something about selling national forested land to pay for the education cuts.

I'm too lazy to google it..

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hippiegunlover', 'I') was wondering why the counties needed more money for education if no one lives there?

[Liamj]

Of course people need education, otherwise they don't appropriately value education, taxation, hyper-specialisation, debt, war, and the god almighty clock that decrees where and what you are.