$91 million in new programs is actually frugal

The net cost of the new programs President Bush proposed in his State of the Union address is about $91 million, according to estimates by the anti-tax National Taxpayers Union Foundation. That’s far less than the $12.8 billion outlined in 2005, or the $106.6 billion in new programs in Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address (or the whopping $327 billion proposed by Bill Clinton in 1999). Is Bush finally becoming a fiscal conservative, or did he just leave topics out of his speech so he could focus more on foreign policy?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

8 Comments

  1. Joe Williams
    Posted February 2, 2006 at 6:56 am | Permalink

    That is all the discretionary spending that is available. After the whopping 60% of the federal budget goes to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security and then you have the war on terror and military budget. Not much left I would say.

  2. A guy from up north
    Posted February 2, 2006 at 11:10 am | Permalink

    JoeMedicade,Medicare and Social Security should not even come into the, so called discretionaryspending. Those programs were funded as a savings account and paid into by those hoping to receive it in the future. The government looks at it differently however, they look at it as their personal piggy bank and raise their eyebrows mone and grone when they find out they have to pay it back.

  3. ProudLib
    Posted February 2, 2006 at 11:14 am | Permalink

    “I will put Social Security into an ironclad lockbox . . . ”

    Hahahaha, boy, what a duffless that Gore is! “ironclad lockbox” let’s seize on that and just ridicule it to death . . .

    Not so funny now, is it.

  4. Steve
    Posted February 2, 2006 at 1:36 pm | Permalink

    Where is Galahad when we need him? Why did I ever rely on him, now that he has abandoned us?

  5. Steve
    Posted February 2, 2006 at 3:59 pm | Permalink

    I’m really glad that we have Steve around to demean every blog he posts on with gratutitous sarcasm.

  6. Steve
    Posted February 2, 2006 at 4:01 pm | Permalink

    However, if I can be serious for a moment, I would like to apologize for being such a flipping annoying ass.

    It’s how I compensate for being born incapable of having sex.

    Forgive me . . . I can’t stop . . .

  7. k
    Posted February 3, 2006 at 12:54 am | Permalink

    Hmmmm….increase spending by $91 million? Well I guess that money will have to come from somewhere so the top 1% will have to take another 9% tax break and the rest of the country will just have to tighten their belts to make up the $100M.

  8. Rage
    Posted February 7, 2006 at 8:01 am | Permalink

    Maybe the Chinese banks told him they were tired of funding our government.