When reading about President Bush’s $2.6 trillion federal budget being signed into law, one must read between the lines. Whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican in the White House, the other side ALWAYS criticizes the President’s budget.
Here’s the real deal:
The way that politicians define a “cut” is if this year’s increase in funding is smaller than last year’s. For instance, if the Federal Gobbledegook Program (my example, not a real program) got a 10% increase in budget last year, and will get a 7% increase this year, in political terms that’s a “cut.” Politicians ignore the fact that the Federal Gobbledegook Program is still getting a 7% increase over last year’s budget. It’s a nasty word game that they play.
Further, they take the 3% “cut” and multiply it out by five or ten years and then get on TV and say that the budget will take billions out of a program over five years or ten years.
Republicans did the same thing when Clinton was in office; now the Democrats are raking Bush over the coals for his “cuts” to health, education and so forth. Yet, miraculously, all of the programs that received “cuts” this year are still ahead of where they were in last year’s budget.
Word games are a politician’s favorite game. And the media plays right along.
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