Cause and effect, Republican style

This is the problem: Republicans agree debt is U.S. security threat

This is one of the main causes (h/t Zfacts):

"The US budget for Iraq in FY 2006 comes to $3,749/Iraqi. This is more than double their per person GDP. It's like spending $91,000 per person in the US."

This is their solution: GOP contenders say cut federal spending

Among their suggestions:

'Let the programs go that don't work. Don't lobby for them forever," said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for across-the-board cuts of up to 15 percent, including reduced federal spending on health care. "Rather than relying on a nanny government, let's rely on people to decide their own health care."

Former Sen. Fred Thompson..."We've got to spend more for the military as a matter of fact, but we've got to look at Social Security and Medicare and do some things that won't hurt anybody badly.

So let's see...after burning through the surplus Bush inherited from Clinton, slashing taxes for the rich multiple times, and spending hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq to search for non-existent WMDs, the Republican candidates are telling us we have to reign in spending and cut domestic programs.

I have a better idea and it won't hurt too badly - vote for anyone but a Republican.

The SOTU Is a Misnomer

The State of the Union address is tonight, although I think that's a misnomer - it should be called the "Spin of the Union" address. Looking only at the economy, the Bonddad Blog points to some honest facts we won't hear tonight: State of the Union: A Nation Off Track

Click the link and read the statistics, but the bottom line is this:

[T]he economic recovery Bush will tout is mostly about the rich getting richer. And those tax cuts that Bush will call the shining star of his economic acumen? Guess what. They’re helping the rich more than the economy.[...]

The Bush administration ran the Clinton budget surplus into the ground after less than a year in office—and has kept adding to the national tab so that the United States is now more than $8 trillion in debt (that’s nearly $29,000 for every man, woman and child in the nation). Yet after all these years of draining the federal budget into oblivion, administration cronies now suddenly are sounding the alarm. [...]

Let’s see. The budget deficit is in the dumpster and the Bush administration wants to salvage it by cutting back on retirement and health care.

As the table shows (which happens to come from the Congressional Budget Office), entitlements only contribute 10% to our budget deficit, yet Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, claims the long-term danger posed by looming deficits comes from Social Security and Medicare!

As Bonddad concludes, "There are a lot of reasons why Bush’s approval rating has tanked, according to recent polls. And it’s pretty clear that Iraq isn’t the only reason 71 percent are saying the country is seriously off track."