Whooey, Clayberry! I thought about addressing the recent spurt of physical attacks and threats but decided to see what the next Communicator contained before trying. So instead, let's talk about the status of our horrifying national deficit.
        It's almost impossible for common folks like us to even imagine the figure of $43 trillion. That would be 12 zeros following the 43 and it is just so far beyond the grasp of regular thinking as to boggle the mind. A comparable figure is the estimated net worth of all American families combined, which is $47 trillion. Scary, isn't it? Our national debt is about 90% of what all of us have put together. A recent estimate from the government said that it will take 75 years of double digit growth to pay it all off, which is impossible when you consider that even in the boom of the 1990's the growth rate was only 3.2%!
        To make things even gloomier, that $43 trillion doesn't even include many costs that the President is trying to add to it. It leaves out a trillion for his tax cuts for the rich and over $4 trillion for ruining Social Security and billions on his military operations.
        On the side of things that we can understand are the programs that improve the quality of life for millions of Americans that are being cut back. Education programs will lose 12% of their funding. Medicaid, which provides health care for the poor and disabled will drop 14% of its funds; Clean Air & Water, that has done so much to improve the quality of our air and water, will be cut 20%. The Head Start program, providing pre-schooling for the low-income, will lose $3.3 billion, cutting nearly 120,000 poor kids from its rolls. The WIC program, which provides nutrition for poor women and infants, will lose nearly three-quarters of a billion low-income mothers and kids.
        On an absolutely goofy note, the single biggest pork-barrel of this so-called budget is highway spending which will more than double, adding nearly $300 billion to its current $218 billion. Along the same line is the Farm-subsidy program which is aimed in reality at helping the giant corporate agri-businesses, which will go literally untouched, while real family farms are going broke left and right.
        Can it get worse? You betchum, Red Rider! The costs of this mess continue long after Bush has left office. The drug prescription program alone will be increasing nearly $100 billion a year from now on. Figure in the upward spiraling costs of Social Security and Medicare as the baby boomers begin retiring and it becomes obvious that we are facing national bankruptcy.
        Like the White Rabbit said, "What to do, what to do?" Somehow we must know the real costs of all spending and tax bills, long before they become part of the budget, like before they are voted on. The best idea would be to return to the "pay as you go" concept where any new spending or tax cuts are paid for by a corresponding tax increase or spending cut. We'll probably never see that though since it is so much fun to throw all that money around. Of course we could revise the tax code, then enforce it, collecting the hundreds of billions in dollars lost in back taxes, through tax evasion or hidden in twisted tax shelters. We could stop the run-away cost of health care but that would be almost like stopping a run-away train with a broom. But, hey, what do I know, I'm just an old Radical from the Hills.