National Budget

The worst recent news, of course, is the possible reversal of the Microsoft breakup. Not that it wasn't expected, since Bush all but proclaimed that he'd do something about that during the campaign, but still. We'll just have to wait for them to die of natural causes after all, I suppose.

Oh yeah, and the national budget. Bush says we're going to expand key programs, contain overall government spendings, pay down a goodly chunk of the national debt, cut taxes dramatically, and save Social Security, all thanks to the magic of—let's say it together—the $5.6 trillion dollar budget surplus!

Or should we say, the projected $5.6 trillion surplus.

Oh, and by the way, the economy appears to have stalled out. Has anyone gone and rerun those numbers since, say, early 2000?

Now, anyone who has ever tried to talk to me about the subject knows I'm no economist. In fact I tend to run screaming when the subject is mentioned. However, I don't think I'm alone in feeling that maybe, just maybe, there is something a little bit funny with the way all of the above adds up (except for Microsoft, since they don't pay taxes—you think I'm kidding?).

I'm down with increasing the education budget, although not the way he's planning to spend it—and how about that "new federalism" anyway? Local control, local accountability, and national testing.... I'm admittedly amused at how non-conservative Bush's priorities seem to be. As I remarked to Dave the other night, he's no more a conservative than Clinton was a liberal; both are opportunists.

In any case, I know that I'd never try to plan my personal budget for next month around what I hope I'll be bringing in five years from now, and I don't think it's any way to run a government, either.

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