An Exercise in Make-Believe

From the LA Times, Shrub's $2.9 Trillion budget proposes trimming Medicare by $66 billion.

...Bush also called for almost $26 billion in cuts for Medicaid, which provides healthcare for the poor, over the same period.

...Separately, Bush's proposed tax deduction of up to $15,000 for health insurance ran into more problems after an independent analysis concluded that most of the tax break would go to higher-income households that already have private insurance.

Most of the tax break going to higher-income households? What a shock. That's so unlike the Bush administration. Meanwhile....

On the spending side, the administration proposed defense outlays of historic proportions, asking for more than $623 billion for the Pentagon in the budget for the 2008 fiscal year, which runs from October 2007 to the end of September 2008. And for the first time since fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq began, the administration's request included an estimate for the cost of the wars, which totaled $142 billion on top of the Defense Department's normal budget of $481 billion.In addition, the Pentagon asked for $93 billion in war funding this year, which would bring the total war costs for 2007 to more than $163 billion. If both requests were approved, the cumulative cost of both wars would top $687 billion, according to the Pentagon's budget documents — more than the entire cost of the Vietnam War, even adjusted for inflation.

By the way, the $142 billion on top of the $481 billion doesn't include the cost of Bush's planned Iraq troop buildup of 21,500 extra troops. This spending is the result of the attack in 2001 that cost about a half-million dollars to execute. We must be doing something wrong.

Who attacked us on 9/11 again? Was it Saddam? Oh yeah, it wasn't. It was the Saudi-sponsored Al Qaeda. Of course, the Bush family ties to the Saudis (and the Bin Ladens) are extensive and, of course, lucrative. He even holds hands with their princes. Maybe that's why the Saudis have gotten a free pass despite being responsible for the loss of thousands of American lives.

With the Iraqi fiasco, we've spent more than we did on the Vietnam War, taken longer than it took to defeat the Nazis and Japanese, and cost more American lives than the 9/11 attacks. Meanwhile, Saudis are still funding Sunni Al-Qaeda jihadists around the world, the Pakistanis are still sheltering the Taliban and running Madrasas that teach hatred, the Taliban is far from defeated, and Bin Laden is still alive, but hey, we did get the one dictator in the region who didn't support Al Qaeda! Heckuva job Shrub !.

Good thing the Republicans are so strong on "defense". How much longer do we have to endure this?