Bush spends it like it's water

[vraiblonde]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/03/in...tner=ALTAVISTA

When the Bush administration unveils its State Department budget for 2004 on Monday, it will call for the largest increase in foreign assistance in two decades. But more significantly, many experts say, it will introduce a new program that would begin overhauling the way America distributes aid to the poorest countries.

And this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2003Feb2.html

President Bush will propose a nearly $470 million boost in NASA's budget for fiscal 2004

What is wrong with him? This stuff makes me say cuss words!

[vraiblonde]

Maybe you're right, Bluto - enslave the rest of the world and leave Americans to get off the dole and be strong or get winnowed out. I'll have to think about that some more...

[Frank]

Originally posted by vraiblonde


What is wrong with him? This stuff makes me say cuss words!

What's your complaint? They get what, 15 billion a year? Didn't we all talk about this a few weeks ago about how that's a drop in the bucket? And he wants to bump up their budget by 3-4%? If anything, it makes me wonder why bother with the chump change? We can take this opportunity to build and design a MUCH more efficient and updated re-usable spacecraft. As it is, the existing shuttle program is outrageously expensive, massively wasteful and technically twenty years out of date. If we build a *better* craft, we could conceivably have a LOT more missions per year at a fraction of the cost.

The whole beef with taking this money and applying it elsewhere - like entitlement programs which absorb the largest portion of a trillion dollar budget is, comparatively speaking, like not giving 5 bucks to your kid so you can apply it to the mortgage - it's *pointless*.

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Hell yeah. I'm for that.

Sell the other three to Saddam, Kim and the Ayatollah of the day (Axis of three, three used shuttles...symmetry...) blast their ### into orbit.

As far as $15 bil goes, it's about $45 per citizen in the US per year. So, it's not pennies, it's...about $45. So our 5 by $45 is $225 or about 1/3 the $600 we got back off the top last year.

The total fed budget, just so we all know how much we are under/over paying our share is some $2 TRILLION, or, roughly $6,000 per citizen or $24,000 per year for my household.

It would be interesting to see how much everybody cared if the dollars they want to give away were ACTAULLY their $'s.

[vraiblonde]

Actually, it would be $30,000 for our household (5 of us x $6,000).

But neither here nor there, that stuff adds up. Everything is just a "drop in the bucket" - but get enough drops and now you've got some real water.

NASA, I'll go with - it's a toy and fun. But most foreign aid is just stupid and gets wasted anyway.

[Frank]

Originally posted by Larry Gude
Hell yeah. I'm for that.

Sell the other three to Saddam, Kim and the Ayatollah of the day (Axis of three, three used shuttles...symmetry...) blast their ### into orbit.

As far as $15 bil goes, it's about $45 per citizen in the US per year. So, it's not pennies, it's...about $45. So our 5 by $45 is $225 or about 1/3 the $600 we got back off the top last year.

The total fed budget, just so we all know how much we are under/over paying our share is some $2 TRILLION, or, roughly $6,000 per citizen or $24,000 per year for my household.

It would be interesting to see how much everybody cared if the dollars they want to give away were ACTAULLY their $'s.

These kinds of analyses fail to attach one thing - well - you did come close - you need to *scale* the amount each citizen contributes in proportion to how much he *actually* contributes, because a lot of people pay NOTHING. It's hard to talk about "my tax dollars" if in fact, I don't pay any!

So you'd only get $225 if you actually DID pay $24,000 in federal income taxes, which - well maybe you DID. But dividing the amount equally isn't sensible since we didn't put that much IN.

[vraiblonde]

Yabbut...

The taxes you pay aren't limited to just withholding - what about sales tax, usage taxes on your utilities, the taxes you pay when you fill up your tank, etc?

So maybe the answer is to ask the people who do pay the majority of the taxes and see if they mind ponying up for some dictator's retirement account. Dunno - I just know that I don't want to give one red cent of my money to it.

[Frank]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
Yabbut...

The taxes you pay aren't limited to just withholding - what about sales tax, usage taxes on your utilities, the taxes you pay when you fill up your tank, etc?

So maybe the answer is to ask the people who do pay the majority of the taxes and see if they mind ponying up for some dictator's retirement account. Dunno - I just know that I don't want to give one red cent of my money to it.

I don't mind paying some dictator's retirement account if it accomplishes a greater, more important goal. For example, I always wondered why on earth we would cozy up to the various leaders of Pakistan. Well, why not? It's a Muslim nation that HAS the bomb - we better make SURE a stable govt remains there. We can't have it de-stabilize into a fundamentalist Muslim regime where they might then send nuclear material to Muslims across the globe. No matter the cost - we HAVE to have a friend in Pakistan, even if it's a dictator.


As to the tax question - yeah, I know all that - but the fact is, the budget is comprised very greatly from money taken from the very wealthy. Proportionately, these programs are paid for with a few dollars from MY contribution. If I paid 10K in taxes last year, and Bush proposes an increase of 1/2000th of the budget, he just spent *5* of *my* bucks - not 45 or 225. I got no gripe with that. The guys who ARE paying for it are the ones putting the most IN.

[vraiblonde]

Originally posted by Frank
No matter the cost - we HAVE to have a friend in Pakistan, even if it's a dictator.

I don't think we'll EVER have a friend in any of those countries, no matter HOW much dough we send them. I don't know about Pakistan but for as much money as we send some of those idiots, we shouldn't have to beg to use their airspace or landing strips. We should just be able to say, "Hey! Move over - we're using your stuff."

So if I were Bush, before I'd hand a dime over to ANY of these people, I'd get an agreement that we get to set up military bases and use their airspace and stuff as we see fit. If they want to be on the dole, we should get something for our money.

[demsformd]

I read last year that under President Bush, the federal workforce has experienced its greatest increases since the presidency of FDR...so much for that whole anti-government stuff right?
On a different note, did anyone read the article in Time about the social security tax? It is quite intriguing and I feel that the double-tax on social security should be discontinued before this dumbass dividend tax cut. If you get Time, I recommend that you read it or you can go to their website and they should post the stories even if you are not a subscriper.