Well fellow Americans, read it and weep.  Instead of being in the position to do good works for
our infrastructure, education, and healthcare, plus fulfill the promises made to take care of Social
Security and Medicare, this pack of thieves and white collar criminals that call themselves the
Republican Party have managed to piss away what the Democrats and the American people
spent eight years to create.  Not since their 500 billion dollar theft from America's Savings &
Loans and their 50 billion dollar looting of HUD have we seen such outright incompetence,
and it's only been  s e v e n  months.

ms
 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-08-07-nceditf.htm

Bush takes huge surplus to ZERO in just seven months
Surplus dwindles to zero amid Bush tax cuts, spending
USA Today Editorial, Aug. 6, 2001

As Congress takes a summer recess, there's one dubious achievement members aren't likely to point out
to constituents back home: The federal budget surplus is gone.

Zip.

Nada.

Nothing left.

Thanks to Congress' insistence on hurry-up tax cuts and an inability to restrain spending, coupled with
the economic slowdown, the $5 trillion, 10-year surplus predictions from January have melted like a
snowman in August. New estimates expected next week are almost certain to show little or no
discretionary money for the rest of this year [and . . . Congress could be forced to again dip into funds
supposedly reserved for paying down the massive national debt.  Already, congressional budget analysts
are warning members that, unless spending is cut or tax breaks pared, revenues earmarked for Medicare
will be needed to get through the budget year starting Oct. 1. The outlook for the following year is even
tighter, raising the near-certainty of a return to hitting Social Security funds as well. . . .

Instead of business-as-usual, Washington needs to face reality: The party's over. Fiscal responsibility
demands that the Social Security and Medicare surpluses remain earmarked for reducing the debt and
the billions spent year after year on endless borrowing costs. Outnumbered budget hawks are right to
inist tthat additional spending, military or domestic, be balanced by cuts elsewhere.

Likewise, it's time to declare a moratorium on further tax breaks unless offset by new revenue somewhere else.
If that means taking back some of the goodies promised in this year's $1.35 billion tax cut, so be it.

Otherwise, there's trouble ahead. The $200 billion deficits of a few years ago, and the drag they put on
the economy for years, are a reminder of the cost of irresponsibility.