Bush's Budget: Write to your Reps and ask them to reject it!

Is anyone besides me sick of all this budgetary hocus-pocus that Bush is attempting to use in presenting his new budget to Congress? Cheney: "I think you'll find, once people sit down and have a chance to look at the budget, that it is a fair, reasonable, responsible, serious piece of effort." Perhaps, but only for a six year old. The operations cost of Irag and Afghanistan will be left out of future budgets, along with the costs of "solving" the so-called Social Security crisis. These figures should be readily available to the public, not just those privy to the budgetary process and they should be discussed opening in public forums, aka the media. Take in to account the proposed cuts in law enforcement ($1.3 billion), educational ( $4.3 billion), rail transportation (no subsidy to Amtrak and $20 billion to high-speed rail), doubling co-payments and adding additional fees to veterans, and what you have is a budget that leaves every child left behind, unprotected and unable to move about to see his now broke grandfather.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was on ABC's "This Week" saying "I hope we in Congress will have the courage to support it." Can it be any clearer that the once strong and progressive McCain is now just a patsy for his party? What I would have liked to hear is something more along the lines of "I hope we in Congress will have the strength to stand up and demand more from our Commander in Chief. This budget is exactly what has been wrong with corporate America and should not be allowed to continue in the America you and I live in." But, of course, I am just dreaming.

Does anyone feel safer now after reading William Finnegan's article in the The New Yorker? It turns out that the Bush administration isn't nearly as serious about protecting us from terrorism as it would have you believe, and instead, relies primarily on the media's lack of in-depth reporting skills, thereby allowing them to get away with doing almost nothing to increase our national security: In 2001, Bush required all cargo on commercial flights to be screened. Flashforward to 2005. What percent is being screened as I write this? Less than 5 percent. And when Clark Evin, the depts. Inspector General outlined in his reports this and other serious security deficiencies, his was let go. And don't get me started on the lack of security screening that is not going on at our commercial harbors-the percentage is about the same.

Feel safer with George W. Bush in office, 'cause I sure don't