And a gargantuan tab it is. In fact, the Roanaoke Times reported on 09/29/06 that the federal deficit for 2006 is not $260 billion (as claimed), but instead $437 billion. The extra $177 billion was GÇ£borrowedGÇ¥ from Social Security, which Allen and the current administration criticize for GÇ£going brokeGÇ¥ and then plunder to pay for a counter-productive war and pet projects. (These so-called leaders have the gall to seek privatization of the very Social Security they undermine.)
Having been GÇ£borrowed,GÇ¥ the $177 billion increases the overall national debt, which by 01/07 will reach $8.5 trillion, 5 trillion of which the policies of Bush, Allen, and the GOP have added. (These figures come from the Office of Management & Budget, 10/06). According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research center, the present administration and GOP-led Congress have increased government spending by 45 percent since 2001. Less than a third of the increase results from defense and homeland security costs.
The effects of such fiscal folly on ordinary Americans take far too many forms to enumerate here. But a few examples will serve to illustrate them.
Along with all our other tax burdens, the cost simply to pay the annual interest on our national debt adds significantly to our taxes. AllenGÇÖs recent GÇ£no new taxesGÇ¥ mantra merely extends to future generations of ordinary Americans the bills due for the debt and the interest on it.
And because Allen, this administration, and their party favor huge tax breaks for the rich and for corporations (Exxon, Chevron, et al.), the rest of America has to pay for the difference. Because the GOP prescription drug bill prohibits our government from negotiating for lower prices from the pharmaceutical companies, most ordinary Americans pay higher prices and more taxes. Because Allen and his party recently voted against a bill that would have required better monitoring of government contracts to cut waste and fraud (as in Iraq and our own Gulf coast), ordinary Americans will continue to pay more.
Briefly put, the tax policies of Allen and the GOP are to defer and transfer: defer the bills to the future and transfer the main responsibility for them to AmericaGÇÖs middle-class. It is so ironic (not to mention outrageous) that, while Allen and his fellow legislators consistently vote pay raises for themselves, they reject a modest boost in the minimum wage, which has not been raised in almost 10 years! From Allen and his party, ordinary Americans continually get the shaft.