$3.1 Trillion
When I read about President Bush’s proposed $3.1 trillion spending plan (a plan that his White House spokeswoman said “certainly” won’t cover the cost of the war, although it does cut Medicaid and Medicare), I was reminded of the scene in the movie Dave where Kevin Kline, playing a presidential look-alike who steps in for the real Commander-in-Chief after he suffers a stroke, rolls up his sleeves along with his accountant friend and tries to save a social program that is near and dear to the heart of the First Lady.
I’m reminded of it, in that I can’t for the life of me imagine President Bush ever doing such a thing. I can’t imagine him and his staff sitting around a big, shiny conference table and trying to do what is best for the American people. Obviously there are people out there who believe that Bush is doing the best job he can, but, at some point, he crossed the line between a leader who made some mistakes resulting in a shitty mess and a leader whose decisions seem downright malicious.
Was the goal of this new budget to bury the American people even farther in debt? To allow the dollar to plunge even lower? To create such a horrible mess for the next president that his presidency seems less disastrous by comparison?
If a Democrat becomes president in November, he or she is going to have a lot of cleaning up to do-so much so that I have wondered for months if he or she could ever be a popular president. With the weight of Bush’s failures on his or her shoulders, he or she will quickly lose the public’s support. Or so I have forecasted, and this is nothing new.
What is new, however, is that this latest news has made me more afraid for the American public than I have ever been. Maybe I’m too focused on the economy, and the dollar’s fall. When you’re paid in American dollars and living in a foreign country, it’s hard to overlook.
Still, things look really bleak. And this isn’t a romantic comedy and there’s no Dave to save us.
I’m reminded of it, in that I can’t for the life of me imagine President Bush ever doing such a thing. I can’t imagine him and his staff sitting around a big, shiny conference table and trying to do what is best for the American people. Obviously there are people out there who believe that Bush is doing the best job he can, but, at some point, he crossed the line between a leader who made some mistakes resulting in a shitty mess and a leader whose decisions seem downright malicious.
Was the goal of this new budget to bury the American people even farther in debt? To allow the dollar to plunge even lower? To create such a horrible mess for the next president that his presidency seems less disastrous by comparison?
If a Democrat becomes president in November, he or she is going to have a lot of cleaning up to do-so much so that I have wondered for months if he or she could ever be a popular president. With the weight of Bush’s failures on his or her shoulders, he or she will quickly lose the public’s support. Or so I have forecasted, and this is nothing new.
What is new, however, is that this latest news has made me more afraid for the American public than I have ever been. Maybe I’m too focused on the economy, and the dollar’s fall. When you’re paid in American dollars and living in a foreign country, it’s hard to overlook.
Still, things look really bleak. And this isn’t a romantic comedy and there’s no Dave to save us.