Chapter 11: Bush spends all the money.

Gee, where were the reporters BEFORE the election?

"With federal deficits already running amok, it is unclear how President Bush will pay for his second-term agenda, a potentially multitrillion-dollar smorgasbord that includes overhauling [read: "gutting"] Social Security and revamping the tax system." [read: "raping the public treasury"]

Well, well, well. Remember when Bush said that he didn't know how Kerry would pay for HIS proposals? How come none of the reporters guys pointed out that Bush had no plan to pay for HIS?

"I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it," the president said."

Translation: "I'm accountable to nobody, and I do what I want."

"But all the political capital in the world won't pay for his pricey priorities. And unlike four years ago, when his first term began amid projections for $5.6 trillion in federal surpluses over the next decade, the budget's future looks bleak. Thanks to recession and the burden of higher spending and tax cuts that Bush won, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office now sees $2.3 trillion in accumulated deficits over the next 10 years."

A $5.6 trillion surplus to a 2.3 trillion dollar deficit. That's 8 trillion. Bush's policies have lost EIGHT TRILLION dollars.

Is any reporter going to ask him point blank how he justifies that?

"That excludes the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, easing the alternative minimum tax's growing burden on middle-class families, and the long-term crunch retiring baby boomers will place on federal support programs like Medicare."

Excuse me: It's a lot MORE than $8t trillion. It's 8 trillion if you don't count minor things like the cost of two wars.

That leaves deficit hawks wondering how Bush would pay for his second-term wish list, finance the wars and meet his goal of halving federal shortfalls by 2009."

They're "wondering"? Why don't they just say "he can't"?

"I don't think you can do all of that and still cut the deficit in half in five years," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the bipartisan Concord Coalition, which favors deficit reduction.

Bush could decide to simply borrow the needed money, which would drive deficits higher, "and the real economic consequences of such a binge would come after he leaves office," Bixby said.

And there's your answer: "Now that I've bankrupted America, I'm out of here. Not my problem."