Voodoo Economics: AT WAR!

Isn't it cute when the prez and he gets all huffy and defensive because someone suggests that he might be infallible? Of course not. It's even annoying when 5 year-olds do that, but you should cut them some slack. Most grow out of it.

Keeping troops in Iraq for another year and a half will cost nearly a quarter-trillion dollars — about $800 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. — under the budget President Bush will submit to Congress Monday.

Bush will ask for $100 billion more for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year and seek $145 billion for 2008, a senior Pentagon official said Friday. Those requests come on top of about $344 billion spent for Iraq since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

At the same time, Bush's budget request will propose cost curbs on Medicare providers, a cap on subsidy payments to wealthier farmers and an increase to $4,600 in the maximum Pell Grant for low-income college students.

Bush's proposal, totaling almost $3 trillion for the budget year starting Oct. 1, will kick off a major debate with the new Democratic-controlled Congress. Democrats are sure to press for more money for domestic programs, and they've signaled they won't consider renewing Bush's tax cuts until closer to 2010, when they are to expire.

I can't wait to hear once more how Iraq and Afghanistan are smashing successes, and how the answer to our $600,000,000,000 credit card bill will vanish in an instant-- if only we cut taxes. I'm sure there's a cadre of right-wingers out there already at work on it.

The article mentions that the pending cost is $800 to every American, but when you add previous spending, it's more like $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. Or, instead of those goofy $200 tax refunds most of us got a few years back, we could've received maybe $2,200 and been in the same position. And those awesome tax cut parties would've had far fewer casualties.