Bush’s Exaggerations Continue…

As the resident right-wing cynic of this left-wing president (Yes, I called him left wing - My plans are to write about how Bush is a liberal in the next few weeks), I’d like to point out one of David Nick’s entries about Bush’s tack on immigration. Davis is a guest writer here, but I don’t always agree with him. This is one of those times.

His argument about immigration is absolutely correct. It is a glaring weakness to our national security and is not taken seriously enough by the federal government, in my honest opinion. In David’s entry he argues that the fact that Bush’s estimate for Border Patrol guards has increased to now 700, it isn’t enough. That may be true. But for every Border Patrol guard, there is a $50,000 salary plus Blue Cross and Blue Shield medical benefits and many other benefits that translate into dollars. Approximately. Standard business overhead.

What I see is money. I see dollars. I see lots of dollars. I see the Bush Administration pushing for and recieving a $400 Billion estimated Medicare Reform plan on December 8th, 2003. Three months later, in March of 2004, that estimate (after the law was passed!) was estimated to cost $534 Billion - 33% more than estimated! The Heritage Foundation is currently projecting an estimate of $770 Billion!

And that’s just Medicare.

Let’s look at war efforts. Like the war or not, the Congress and American people were duped on costs. I understand that wartime calls for spending which preserves the troops, but let’s examine the numbers for a bit of a reality check. Ask yourself what would have happened as it pertained to Congress authorizing the President to go to war in Iraq had the numbers presented beforehand been accurately presented:

• $54B allocated in April ‘03 as the cost necessary to fight the war in Iraq.
• $71B supplemental seven months later (part of the infamous $87B request).
• $21.5B as part of the FY05 federal budget.
• $61B in a current request.
• Source: CostofWar.com

In other words, the numbers continue to exponentially increase everytime a proposal is shot out there and the Republican Congress falls behind its fearless leader and rubber stamps requests without proper analysis and testimony.

Social security reform is pegged at about $2T as a cost of implementing. Does anyone realistically expect that number to stay that low? Of course not!

Now David brings up a point that the number of projected field agents for Border Patrol duty has been increasing from its original estimate. And I ask, why are you surprised? By spouting a low number, the administration has the effect of lessening the blow of the [name of program] proposal and makes them to be responsible with the peoples money. What everyone seems to turn a blind eye to is that the incremental increase comes in after the defensiveness subsides.

So, David, when you say:

What should also be alarming, is our government cares not about the safety of the all citizen volunteer group patrolling the borders.

I say, perhaps some fiscal discipline is showing up in government? I’d like to see some of the budgetary issues addressed so we can afford to put more agents out there.

For what it’s worth, The Cato Institute published a Fiscal Expectations guide for Congress a few years ago. It’s worth a good read.

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• Stumble it!

About the Author: Aaron Brazell is the lead editor of Technosailor.com and a social media expert. His passion is to see companies and individuals use the internet and web technologies wisely and effectively to promote their brands and companies. He served as Director of Technology at b5media from 2005-2008 and is currently an independent consultant.