pinions of buddy don: these aint yer daddys publicans

i wuz razed by a right wing publican. he wuz a marine corps raider in wwii, wurked as a speshul agent of the fbi, n spent the rest of his wurkin life wurkin fer the gummint in securty. he voted fer nixon in 1960 n goldwater in 1964.

he bleeved that the fedrul gummint shouldnt git too big, shouldnt spend money it dont have, n most of all, should stay outta the private lives of amurkin citizens. he wuz so out of it that he tuck all that foundin father stuff bout bein willin to sacrifice our lives, our property n all our worldly goods to make shore we wuz free frum gimmint intrudin on us.

tiz a lucky thang fer im that he wuz dun in his grave by the time the current bunch tuck cuntrol. fergit the spyin, fergit the lawmakin trine to deetermine whut a person kin do in the privussy of his or her own home, fergit the lawmakin trine to limit rites of folks that happens to be gay.

whut wooda been the biggest beetrayull of em all is how them publicans is borryin n spendin. as ye probly dint have a chants to notiss, tiz time agin to raze the fedrul debt limit.

as near everbidy knows, mr bush inherited a budget surplus frum mr clinton. he also had im a $5.95 TRILLION debt limit to wurk under. how has that gone? jes last munth he had to git mr treasury secretary john snow to send a letter to congress splainin how they wuz a'gone half to raze the debt ceilin fer the forth time since 2002. heres a lil recap of how thatn has gone durin the last three years or so:

• 2001: debt limit whenever the spreme cort eleckted mr bush: $5.95 TRILLION
• june 2002: congress has to raze the debt limit to $6.4 TRILLION
• may 2003: congress has to raze the debt limit to $7.4 TRILLION
• november 2004: congress has to raze the debt limit to $8.184 TRILLION
• december 2005: mr snow has to ast fer that limit to be razed more sos the gummint dont go outta bizness.

whut gits me most bout this is how them publicans acks lack they wonta keep gummint small, but aint hardly nobidy othern lbj to grow it near as fast as mr bush n his totally cumpliant publican congress has dun. so how is that all addin up on us?

i putt a lil debt counter on my sidebar sos ye kin keep up with it. take a look at them numbers a'movin.

so aint it them dimcrats that runs up the debt? on a counta how much better them publicans is at makin ye bleeve thangs that aint necessarily so, most folks woodnt bleeve taint so. but check this lil graph.

so how are them publicans a'gone deal with this problem (besides razin the debt limit agin -- this time looks lack they wonta raze it by $781 BILLION)? cut taxes on rich folks, ack lack tax-free medicull accounts is a'gone address our health insurants problems, cut educayshun loan guarantees, make shore thar pharma n insurants speshul innerests is perteckted, n more of that same kinda thang.

corse thays sum pallgists fer innythang n everthang mr bush wonts to do that claims tiz only the percent of the gdp that matters. heres a lil disucsshun bout that:

The federal debt is so mind-boggling it's no wonder lawmakers would rather not think about it. In per capita terms, the current debt is about $27,000 for each of 298 million Americans.

But economists tend to look at the national debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product -- the sum total of all goods and services. This links the debt level to the nation's ability to pay and factors out inflation over time.

By this measure, the national debt has ebbed and flowed with world and political currents. According to historical tables in the 2006 federal budget, debt peaked at 121.7 percent of GDP in 1946 because of World War II spending. It fell to about 33 percent of GDP in 1980, then roughly doubled to the 60 percent range during the administrations of President Ronald Reagan and the first President George Bush.

After hitting 67.3 percent of GDP in 1996, a few rare budget surpluses during the Clinton era drove the national debt back down to about 57 percent in 2001.
Debt as a percentage of GDP turned up again as the Bush administration began running deficits and now stands at an estimated 65.7 percent of GDP. The 2006 budget forecast predicts that the national debt will be 70 percent of GDP in 2010.

Nonpartisan budget watchers say the current debt load isn't the problem. They worry about what happens after 2010, when retiring Baby Boomers begin placing demands on Social Security and Medicare.

"It's not where we are. It's the trajectory we're on,'' said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who just stepped down as head of the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress.

As his last official act, Holtz-Eakin sent Congress six scenarios that look at federal spending and debt through 2050. All six assume that Social Security benefits will be paid as required by current law. The differences lie in how much inflation occurs in Medicare and Medicaid; higher or lower levels of taxation; and whether, or how deeply, Congress curbs spending on defense and other programs.

The scenario that follows current trends leads to an eye-popping national debt of 449 percent of GDP in 2050. Seen another way, in this business-as-usual scenario, it would cost 21.4 percent of GDP to pay just the interest on the federal debt in 2050. In 2005, the comparable figure was 1.5 percent.

i shore hope daddys coffin has a nuff room fer im to turn over. these shore aint his publicans!