State of the Union Address: President Bush Declares War on Math (1/31/2002)
by Dean Hartwell
The other night,
President George W. Bush drew repeated applause from Congress for his call for
more spending on the military, "homeland security" and armed forces'
pay. He got almost as much when he discussed his plans to cut taxes even further
than he has advocated so far.
His plan to raise spending on education, health care, prescription coverage and
several other domestic programs also received approval from most of the members
of Congress. Instead of applauding, I wish that some of our officials would
have stopped clapping and reached for a pen and paper to compute how Bush will
pay for these ideas.
When the President encouraged us to volunteer two years worth of our time
during our lifetimes, he had the right idea. He asked us to make a sacrifice
and he was fairly specific about it. But he should have offered a sacrifice
himself: either give up the huge tax cuts ($1.3 trillion over ten years) or
tell us he cannot deliver on some of the programs he had in mind at this time.
Why? Because simple math does not allow a decrease in money coming in to the
government (due to tax cuts) and the ability to pay for what Bush says he
wants. As noted in my "take" on January 20th, Bush currently does not
have the funds to pay for a program that assists the handicapped in schools.