WP: $3 Trillion Price Tag Left Out As Bush Details His Agenda

[kskiska]

Tuesday, September 14, 2004; Page A01

The expansive agenda President Bush laid out at the Republican National Convention was missing a price tag, but administration figures show the total is likely to be well in excess of $3 trillion over a decade.

A staple of Bush's stump speech is his claim that his Democratic challenger, John F. Kerry, has proposed $2 trillion in long-term spending, a figure the Massachusetts senator's campaign calls exaggerated. But the cost of the new tax breaks and spending outlined by Bush at the GOP convention far eclipses that of the Kerry plan.

Bush's pledge to make permanent his tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2010 or before, would reduce government revenue by about $1 trillion over 10 years, according to administration estimates. His proposed changes in Social Security to allow younger workers to invest part of their payroll taxes in stocks and bonds could cost the government $2 trillion over the coming decade, according to the calculations of independent domestic policy experts.

And Bush's agenda has many costs the administration has not publicly estimated. For instance, Bush said in his speech that he would continue to try to stabilize Iraq and wage war on terrorism. The war in Iraq alone costs $4 billion a month, but the president's annual budget does not reflect that cost.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18876-2004Sep13.html

[cthrumatrix]

1. that's the chimp...he's a "mis-leader" in everything he does

[Just Me]

2. They are quite serious about being the "rulers" of a NWO.

"They" are also quite sick,...all those radical elements,...all around.

I guess the "blessing" is that,...this empire will fall far more quickly than all those humanity suffered through previously.

While the "arrogants" are feeling their oats,...humanity is defining destiny.

[wishlist]

3. Great debunking of Shrub's lies about Kerry's spending plan

This article has great timing since shrub was all over TV this week whining about how Kerry was going to bankrupt the country since the taxes on the rich wouldn't be enough for Kerry's spending plans. What a joke, since shrub has already bankrupted us with no way at all to pay for it.

[kerryistheanswer]

4. This is HUGE news

I just sent this article to everyone I know. Bush cannot fake it with lies forever.

[Massacure]

5. lmao, shrub accuses kerry for a two trillion dollar question

Now he proposes a three trillion dollar one.

[wellst0nev0ter]

6. Damn, Below The Fold

Ho well, Republicans wanting about more gun violence in DC is pretty important too

[Thurston Howell IV]

7. Good stuff

This would make a good ad for Kerry

[JDPriestly]

8. Especially interesting

in light of the Medicare drug scandal in which the actual cost of the drug benefit for seniors was purposely covered up. Bush also hid the cost of the Iraq war, assuring Americans that Iraqi oil would pay for it when he could not possibly have known that to be true. He spends and spends, borrows and borrows, and doesn't have the courage to tell us how much our bill will be. What kind of leadership is that?

[Whoa_Nelly]

9. It's amazing

WE scream about all the misleading, the lies of BushCo. We send the info out to the media, to our friends, to those we hope to reach, speak up about our indignation, demand that all the BushCo insanity be known far and wide. Yet, when are the Dems who need to be heard, who should be nailing this administration's ass to the wall, going to show spine? When are those whom we have elected to represent us going to get the truth out instead of continuing to allow the lies and deception to be the overriding "truth" for much of the US public? Had the Dems begun speaking up more loudly, causing more controversy, knocking down all the straw men well over two years ago, perhaps we would be heard more clearly today. Perhaps the exposure of the lies and the telling of the truth based on concrete facts would take precedence more frequently, with more impact, through our representatives as well as the US media, had the Dems cornered the market on talking the bottom line so much earlier. The Dem party has not been playing as down and dirty as the Shrub/Republican-Heading-To-Fascist-Government has been in these last dark fours years of our nation. Moral high ground and indignation will not set the truth free about the BushCo group, and will leave us and the the Dem Party, with only moral high ground and indignation and little else. We have seven weeks left, and yet where those who are making the Dem platform for this election something that has real substance?

Don't get me wrong. I wanted Bush out of office before he took the oath of office for POTUS. I've been carrying my passport with me consistently just in case this administration did something so dangerous that it ultimately threatened my life and it became necessary to hasten out of my nation in fear and seeking safety. I want Kerry and Edwards to win this election. But, without a strong platform, without daily nailing the Bush crooks' asses to the wall each and every time, the Roverian/Cheney/Bush machine continues to be the steady hum of a nation that will elect this team of arrogant and greedy venal fucks.

Flame me as you will. I grow more despondent each day as this election nears, and envision the Republican/PNAC neoconsevartive party continuing it's stranglehold on forcefully moving us toward a very right-wing, almost fascist, governement, and away from all we should and could be after more than two hundred years as a nation based on the premise and promise of democracy.

[fdr_hst_fan]

15. AMEN, Angel!

[donkeyotay]

21. I just want to pull a Clinton here and say, "I feel your pain."

I understand your frustration and I am also sometimes despondent. And even though I agree with you that the democrats haven't been forceful enough, I'd like to offer this thought in their defense:

I can't count the number of times I've seen Democrats giving absolutely take-no-prisoners speeches in the congress. I've seen them on C-Span with the handful of people home during the day. Meanwhile, the goper-whore media is gassing millions, beside the 5 million or so FOX-faithful who are delusional to the point of psychosis.

The democrats do speak out. There message doesn't get through, and then they have to pay the price anyway. The democratic party has been compromised, no doubt, always moving more and more to the center (which gets further and further to the right). But there are still many good people in the party who have spoken out.

Here's a breadcrumb of hope for you: Dan Rather questioned the Unelected Fraud's service record ON THE SIX O'CLOCK NEWS. That's important because that credible source in that credible format will reach people we never will. It might be the first sign that there are even people in power who realize these neocons have got to go.

grammar edit...

[Whoa_Nelly]

22. THX, donkeyotay!

Good to hear that Rather is reporting re: Dubya's NG record. Maybe more of his past will catch up to him before the election, and hopefully, more of his lies and deception will be revealed to the US public. O8)

[fearnobush]

10. This is Huge!! The spend President cannot be projected on to Kerry.

We must media blitz this to prove Bush is cut rich tax and spend Neo-Con. Raise taxes on the middle class and spend spend spend. Thats Bush. Kerry's plan is far lower than this fools. We must blast now!!

[texastoast]

11. Bump for freepers n/t

[Cocoa]

12. not fair

how dare the liberal media examine the cost of Bush's proposals?

[xyboymil]

13. Kick

:kick:

[Just Me]

14. They have always conveniently left out (hidden) the important details. n/t

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. Kick

:kick:

[LiberalFighter]

17. During his diatribe I was thinking who the hell...

is going to get stuck with the tab??

Bet it won't be his wealthy buddies!!

[Deja Q]

18. Come on guys, the reasons are obvious and here's what to do:

The wealthy think they're better than us.

With peak oil, knowing that to abandon Iraq would lead to the citizens destroying the oil refineries and thereby us by proxy, mass baby boom retirement leading to medicare/social security crisis (to the tune of ultimately more than $40 trillion and it is no hoax), and other issues I'm too tired to remember, * is helping his rich buddies stock up money so when the crash comes, they live while we die.

The only solution is for us to stop spending money for everything except essentials.

* knows there is no hope. Why bother to balance the budget? We're heading to an impasse at warp speed. Instead of changing society to be more graceful, he's helping the elite while gouging us when stabbing us wearing a shroud.

[librechik]

19. hmmm-isn't it interesting that a lot of these rich buddies manage

to get in charge of things we CAN'T scrimp on? Like utilities, medicine, healthcare, and petroleum?

Sure, a person can cut down on random purchases, and conserve on driving. I'm all for that, and for recycling.

But when the electric company presents you with a bill and you have to keep the refrigerator turned on so your food doesn't spoil--it's pretty difficult to try and make a political statement there, especially if you have a family.

[Deja Q]

20. Then why don't they give us the means to give us painless deaths?

:shrug:

[struggle4progress]

23. kick for mountains of debt for our children's children's children

:kick:

[Festivito]

24. $3T is only $42,000 for a family of four.

They already owe $7T or $100,000.

Thank goodness for the minimum wage. </rage>