the same genius who said in the state of the union address that he wants to balance the budget is now talking about increasing spending and making the tax cuts permanent. how is this possible, you might ask? well, first of all, it isn't, second of all, it involves slashing healthcare (and thus creating a great hot button topic for the demokkkrats to ride to victory in '08... thanks, dubya), and third of all, it isn't.

ok, first. the treasury secretary has put the challenge out to the demokkkrats: balance the budget without raising taxes. that's like saying mix paints to make orange, but you can't use red. the only feasible solution to balance the budget at this point is to raise taxes, but it need not be across the board. the wealthiest two percent of our country control twenty percent of the wealth. that's a lot to get at.

second of all, it's easy to cut the shit out of healthcare programs that you are never going to have to use. if dubya resigned in disgrace and lost all his government provided insurance, he could afford to personally pay for any and every bit of medical treatment for the rest of his life.

thirdly, it won't really be balanced even if they do say "fuck the poor" as usual. every year, we have a budget, then an "emergency spending bill" that doesn't count. it consists of a lot of pet projects, like, i don't know, the war in iraq. this is billions of dollars that don't get counted against the budget for the year, so if by some miracle, we had a surplus instead of a deficit, it could still be eaten up by "emergency spending." (since the war has been going on for years, how much of an emergency can it really be? it's not like it came as a surprise.)

trickle-down doesn't fucking work.