Speaking of the tax cuts, I have read more than one article (one of them in the same issue of The New Republic that I mentioned yesterday) noting that either (1) the proponents are incompetent, or (2) they intend to cause a fiscal crisis that will give them an excuse to get rid of all sorts of federal spending programs. The New Republic article also suggested that Democrats and Republicans are engaged in a huge game of chicken, with the Republicans hanging onto their tax cuts and the Democrats hanging onto their spending until a big ol' kablooey results, whereupon each can point to the other and say, "It's THEIR fault!"

Lovely. Just great. How exciting for us.

Regarding the Democrats hanging onto their spending, though, I recall my high school economics teacher pointing out that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid were the big-ticket items in the budget -- defense might have been in there too, I can't remember, but I think those three outweigh it. Are those the programs that the Republicans are planning to target, assuming (2) is correct?

wow.

We apparently shall see, but I am very curious to see also if the Republican constituencies follow where that leads. Surely not? Won't it be completely obvious, if we arrive at that point, that it was Bush's tax cuts that got us there? Won't that backfire on them?

I hope?

I guess the Democrats going along with this are hoping that too. Or, they don't care, or they're not informed.

Or, they're chicken.

copyright 2003 carrie lynn king.