In a stinging editorial called "Fiscal Flimflam," Newsday writes: "Who's he kidding? Even judged against the flexible yardstick of presidential truth- stretching, the budget pronouncements from the Bush White House lately have been lollapaloosas. The president was at it again the other day, claiming in a speech to the American Legion that he sees no reason why the vanishing surplus should stop him from getting his top priorities of defense and education funded when Congress returns from summer recess. That might, conceivably, be true in the short term. But only if President George W. Bush gives some clue as to how he intends to accomplish it. So far, he hasn't. Nor has he acknowledged that his own tax cuts-as well as budget provisions enacted when his party controlled both houses of Congress-complicate the task."

"Are we all dimwits? We just sit there with goofy looks on our faces while the economy sputters and the president blows what remains of the budget surplus on a tax giveaway to the rich. With nary a peep as the 'what me worry?' kid has the gall to make stealing funds from Social Security and Medicare -- to pay for a military buildup to fight an enemy that doesn't exist -- sound like fiscal responsibility. There is method to the president's [sic] madness, as he spelled out in his press conference Friday, proclaiming that the prospect of government red ink is 'incredibly positive news' because it will produce 'a fiscal straitjacket for Congress.'" So writes columnist Robert Scheer in Salon.

According to Democratic Chair Terry McAuliffe, "George W. Bush has broken a lot of promises in less than eight months. He promised not to spend the Medicare Trust Fund, last week his Office of Management and Budget reported that he has. He promised not to spend the Social Security Trust Fund, despite budget gimmicks the Congressional Budget Office reported today that $9 billion will disappear from the Social Security surplus. After eight years of Democrats making tough choices and showing budget discipline George W. Bush has changed the tone in Washington: back to the days of budget gimmicks and rosy scenarios. These do nothing to fund the priorities of America's families. Bush promised not to raid the Medicare and Social Security Trust Funds. He needs to take responsibility, show some leadership, roll up his sleeves and get to work in a bi-partisan manner to fix his budget."

NY Times columnist Paul Krugman has doggedly exposed Bush's lies about the budget. Even so, Bush's lying never stops. His tax giveaway to the rich has completely devoured the Clinton-Gore surplus, but Bush wants to blame the economic slowdown, even though the official projections assume an economic recovery. Worse, Bush wants to blame Congress - even though all of the budget votes took place when Republicans controlled BOTH houses, and the only expensive spending item is HIS military increase for Star Wars and other new weapons. Bush's neverending budget lies break ALL of his core campaign promises, both that we can have a massive tax cut with no pain - and that he will bring honor and integrity to the White House. First Bush stole the election, now he's stealing the surplus. Impeach Bush now!

The NY Times quotes Bush's recital of some classic right-wing propaganda lines. "Bush said today that there was a benefit to the government's fast-dwindling surplus, declaring that it will create 'a fiscal straitjacket for Congress.' He said that was 'incredibly positive news' because it would halt the growth of the federal government." Hey Bush, President Gore would have pushed for paying down the National Debt racked up by Reagan and your Iran-Contra/Iraqgate Dad! Instead you gave 40% of your tax cuts to the wealthiest 1%! Oh, we get it – it's better in Bush World that you repay your special interests -- with tax cuts to the wealthy, energy sector subsidies and the Star Wars boondoggle (sure enough, your handlers will find a way to dip into the Social Security surplus -- since we are headed straight towards an 'economic recession'). Heaven forbid that anyone else touches the Budget, since it will only be for Evil. Btw, it's not a tax 'rebate' -- but an advance on next year's taxes!

In his first appearance before Congress in January, President Bush's implicit message was that the country could have it all -- big tax cuts, big increases in spending for education and defense, a new Medicare prescription drug benefit, new private retirement savings accounts, and a slew of other goodies -- without putting the budget into the red or damaging the economy's prospects. Unfortunately, Bush's tax giveaway for the rich has swallowed up the entire surplus, threatening Social Security, Medicare, education, defense, and everything else in the federal budget. Let's impeach Bush now!

Boy, Harry Truman would have a thing or two to say about a traveling used car salesman posing as a President breezing through his hometown of Independence and trying to sell descendants of his neighbors a bill of goods! But that's just what Ole Oily (Bush's "road handle") did this week. He's cleaned out the budget cupboard, handing all the best goodies out to his rich friends in huge tax breaks. Now he wants Show Me Staters (and the rest of us poor working slobs) to believe that the lack of "bread and milk" left in the budget for the poor, elderly, disabled and the environment has nothing to do with his raid on the "cupboard." Instead, he announced that if the Dems try to find enough "edibles" - even borrowed - to give the needy at least a square meal or two, he'll use his veto power to lock the door and throw 'em all out in the cold. In the photo here, poor Harry T's ghost in the background looks like it isn't sure whether to laugh or cry.

My, my! That MBA sure is coming in handy for the Shrubmeister! Why, that boy can cook books better than Julia Childe can roast a cornish game hen! Now he's cookin' us up a new budget. A pinch of moonshine, a generous helping of Social Security funds and Voila! Budget a la Bush! Looks good now, but come next year, after handing out the tax cut, it will collapse just like a jolted souffle. In its place will be a Blues Bros. feast: rubber biscuits (the kind that's supposed to bounce back off the wall and into your mouth - if they don't, you go hungry!) and wish sandwiches (where you have two pieces of Wonder Bread and WISH you had something to go in between!).

Bush has taken us from a surplus to a new round of deficit spending with absolutely nothing to show for it - except $300 per tax filer. But this little bit of bribery has inflicted such a severe cash flow squeeze that now, instead repaying $57 billion on the national debt, the U.S. Treasury will be borrowing $51 billion. What most Americans don't know is that the tax rebate is just a part of the problem, that is being used to mask the real one: that Bush is giving corporations a great big grace period on paying their taxes by changing the tax due date to Oct. 1. Most of us would have preferred that deal to the $300 any day! Meanwhile, the money "given" to AIDS support and other good works is being taken out of money from other programs, thus canceling out most of the benefit.

America, you have been been snookered! Less than one month after being adopted, Shrub's budget is predicted to be in the red within a year! Meanwhile, the GOP is merrily robbing Peter Six-Pack to pay Paul Perrier and counting on Congressional moderates to continue to turn a blind eye. A Democrats.com reader turns the light of day onto the imminent budget deficet.

"Congressional Democrats are convinced that President Bush's outsize tax cut will force him to face a difficult political choice this fall: raid the Medicare surplus or reduce defense or education spending. 'He's painted himself into a corner,' said Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.), ranking member on the House Budget Committee, who has long maintained that Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut and anticipated federal spending will drain away the federal budget surplus. 'This new administration inherited the largest budget surplus in our nation's history,' Spratt wrote his Democratic colleagues late last month, 'yet after only five months, the record eight-year string of improving budgets is over, and the budget is headed to tap the Medicare trust fund for day-to-day operations once more.'" So writes Mort Kondracke in Roll Call.

"The cost of the recently-passed $1.3 trillion tax cut along with projected shortfalls in the government's revenue stream mean that Congress will have to start spending money from the Medicare Trust Fund 'this year,' Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad said Tuesday. Conrad attacked President Bush and Congressional Republicans for the size of the tax cut, saying it would force them to take money from Medicare in order to pay for defense spending and other programs." The Republican tax cut was premised on a surplus of $275 billion for the current year -- but the slowing economy has cut this projection by $56 billion. As a result, Republicans will be forced to raid the Medicare Trust Fund.

As Paul Krugman writes in The New Republic, "the 'honesty gap' is more important than the fiscal gap. The Bush tax plan is irresponsible, but America will surely survive it, just as we survived the Reagan tax cut. What is different this time is the utter dishonesty of the sales campaign. At every stage in this debate, Bush and his people have tried to obscure what they were really proposing... No previous administration has tried to sell its economic plans on such false pretenses. And this from a man who ran for president on a promise to restore honor and integrity to our nation's public life." Hey William Bennett - where is the outrage???

The ill-effects of Bush's budget, a medieval model of squeezing the poor to pad the pockets of the rich, will be felt around the globe. Spending on humanitarian aid abroad has been slashed by $200 million - enough to have kept hundreds of thousands of Third-World kids from starving this year. The U.S. is now dead last among all developed nations in what it spends to ease global poverty. But the budget makes Bush's priorities clear - he'd rather spend our tax dollars on a tacky show of military might: Let 'em starve - Bush needs his toys! Want to see how the rest of the world is doing? See http://www.bread.org/hungerbasics/international.html

When Bu$h's catastrophic budget begins to hit home later in Bu$h's illegitimate term - in the form of deep cuts in health care, education, the environment, and the social safety net - we know who to blame. All of the Republicans (except Chafee and Jeffords) and 5 "Democrats" - Zell Miller (GA), John Breaux (LA), Max Baucus (MT), Max Cleland (GA), and Ben Nelson (NE). We urge our members in these states to organize statewide chapters (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dem-moderators/links) to meet with these "Democrats" and ask them WHO they think elected them - and who they think will support them when they run again. If they want to represent greedy millionaires, they should find another party! It's not too late to change their vote on the actual tax bill - the budget is NOT binding, just a guideline.

RANGEL : "This is the beginning of the biggest political nightmare that President Bush has ever had." GEPHARDT : "Republicans vote to raid the Social Security and Medicare trust funds..." DASCHLE : "...this budget sends a very disturbing message."

Now that the GOP is close to passing the Bu$h budget, does it matter? "In recent years the spending and tax targets set in the budget resolution have been all but ignored when bills were written, and budget experts say they expect this year to be no exception... The numbers 'are basically placeholders,' acknowledged Brenna Hapes, spokeswoman for the House Budget Committee, adding that this would give 'flexibility to the appropriators to implement the president's priorities.' If the Senate and House pass different bills, she said, 'we'll have a big conference at the end of the year.'" In other words, the whole budget exercise is a farce - like everything Republicans do.

"Moderate" Senators have been holding out for $6 billion in additional education spending as their condition for supporting the Bu$h "Greed Before Need" budget. But Republican leaders gave these Senators the metaphorical finger by adding "nonbinding language" (better known as BS) rather than hard dollars. Maybe the Republicans can explain how you pay a teacher with "nonbinding language." This deal stinks, and the "Moderates" should Just Say No. The vote is Thursday, so call them IMMEDIATELY at 202-224-3121 - John Breaux (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Zell Miller (D-GA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI).

House Republicans tried to shove their budget down America's throat on Thursday without giving Members of Congress a chance to read the bill. But at 2 a.m., alert Democrats led by Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) noticed 2 pages were missing from the bill, and stopped the vote on procedural grounds. The vote is expected on Wednesday - amidst news that the unemployment rate jumped to 4.5% in April, despite the Federal Reserve's cuts in interest rates. This will put a major dent in the surplus projections that are the basis for the Republican "Greed Before Need" budget. Call your Senators and Representatives (202-224-3121) and tell them to JUST SAY NO to the Republican budget.

Early Friday morning, Congress postponed a vote on the "Greed Before Need" budget because 2 pages were missing. NY Times columnist Paul Krugman thinks many more pages are missing - dealing with hugely expensive issues like star wars, Rumsfield's rearmament plan, prescription drug coverage for Medicare, the Alternative Minimum Tax, and privitization of Social Security. Tell your Senators and Representatives (202-224-3121) to oppose the Bush Budget!

Conservative Democratic Senators, led by John Breaux (LA), Ben Nelson (NE), Zell Miller (GA), Robert Torricelli (NJ), and Zell Miller (GA), cut a budget deal that gives Bu$h nearly everything he wanted. The deal includes a reckless 10-year tax cut of $1.35 Trillion that goes mostly to the rich, and a grossly inadequate spending increase of less than 5% that goes mostly to weapons manufacturers and agribusiness. It's time for some progressive Democrats to start talking about filibustering the actual tax and spending bills.

Bu$h is intensively lobbying moderate Democratic Senators, including Max Baucus (MT), Ben Nelson (NE), Bob Torricelli (NJ) Max Cleland (GA), and John Breaux (LA) to "compromise" on a $1.4 trillion tax cut - which is still way beyond what the country can afford. These Democrats appear to be holding firm, because they know House Republicans will continue to pass bills further increasing the total tax cuts. But they still need to hear from their constituents - call 202-224-3121.

Congress returns from its spring break this week, and GOP leaders hope to push their "Greed Before Need" budget through both chambers by May 4. All of the Senate Democrats except Zell Miller (D-GA) oppose the GOP budget, and have the support of Republicans Jim Jeffords (R-VT) and Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). The Republicans and their corporate paymasters will be putting tremendous pressure on moderate Democrats like Max Baucus (MT), Evan Bayh (IN), John Breaux (LA), Jean Carnahan (MO), Thomas Carper (DE), Max Cleland (GA), John Edwards (NC), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Tim Johnson (SD), Herb Kohl (WI), Mary Landrieu (LA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Ben Nelson (NE), and Robert Torricelli (NJ). Call your Senators (202-224-3121) and tell them to oppose the Republican "Greed Before Need" budget!

When Shrub took office, he must have taken a "Hypocritic Oath" in which he pledged to "do no harm" to anyone making over $100,000. Unfortunately, that leaves most of us - especially children out. In a double slap in the face, Shrub first plagiarized the Children's Defense Fund trademark slogan "No Child Left Behind," then followed it up by chopping programs for the same kids CDF seeks to help. In response CDF has stated, "The litmus test of caring for children is what is done, not just what is said. Children are not fed or housed by words." A ripped off slogan mouthed by a hypocrite like Shrub provides cold comfort indeed.

Like two con-artists, Bush and Laura hold photo-ops at hospitals, libraries and after-school programs, where they dish out warm and fuzzy platitudes. But their words mask the dark reality of Bush's proposed budget cuts to these same programs. "In the last few weeks, either President [sic] Bush or his wife, Laura, has visited a total of three domestic organizations whose work they heralded -- a children's hospital in Atlanta, a public library in Washington and a Boys and Girls Club in Wilmington, Del. All three would have their funding slashed in the budget Bush proposed last Monday." Note how Bush's hypocrisy is further underscored by his behavior during the campaign, when he disingenuously attacked McCain for wanting to cut programs. What a guy!

To Bush, becoming educated means passing standardized tests, and a school is just another corporate franchise. Under Bush's plan, we may find Coke and Reebok logos plastered on every wall, and lesson plans run through the corporate censors (global warming is a myth, labor unions are bad, chemicals are all good for you!). But out there right now, fighting on unaided, even scorned, by this cold new regime, there are educators who continue to believe that part of teaching is igniting a spark in darkness, while a school can be anywhere that dreams still survive.

In a rare move, three Catholic leaders sent a joint plea to Washington that a portion the projected surplus be earmarked to aid the estimated 43 million Americans who have no medical insurance. Although Bush had vowed to extend coverage to more uninsured, his promise has held about as much water as a holy grail. The letter pointed out that a disproportionate number of uninsured have chronic health problems such as diabetes. "In a country as prosperous as the United States, assisting the uninsured to gain necessary health coverage must be a public policy priority," says the letter. "In a just society, we need to protect and promote these fundamental rights -- with a special priority given to meeting the basic needs of the poor and underserved, especially the need for safe and affordable health care." Amen!

"In a single week, the American people have been subjected to misinformation about two of the most important matters in a democracy. The first involved the true outcome of last year’s Presidential election in Florida, where a newspaper-sponsored review of that state’s contested ballots was initially reported to favor George W. Bush. The second emanated directly from the White House, where Mr. Bush and his advisers have distributed the most misleading budget document to emanate from that building in many years. It is unsurprising, perhaps, that an administration brought to power by deception would attempt to govern deceptively. But the details reveal much about the character of government under the Bush restoration." Fudging expected increases, draining Medicare, the bogus "emergency reserve" and the broken promises on senior Rx coverage "shows that his budget message employs trickery to permit the tax cut, which is his only real priority." Joe Conason exposes the Bush budgetary shell game.

The Shrubmeister's budget is a cold, insulting splash of reality in the face of rural midwestern Bush supporters. Little did they know when they cast their votes last November that their promised tiny tax break was to be financed by cuts to the program of greatest importance to their regions--agriculture. The cut starts with a 10% chunk (in real dollars) this year and under Bush will get deeper yearly. Bush's attitude toward his Midwestern supporters was callously summed up by his own joke (made at Washington's Gridiron dinner): "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you have to concentrate on."

The budget calls for a cut in the SEC fraud investigation unit--and why not? Shrub wants his buddies to have the best possible chance to cash in--just like he did back in 1990, when he unloaded $848,560 worth of Harken Energy stock a week before the company's value crashed. Ten months later (a mysteriously long delay!), a two-year investigation of Bush's dealings with Harken was launched by the SEC. But Daddy was president, the SEC commissioners were all appointed by the president and the commission's general counsel had been Shrub's lawyer during the Texas Rangers negotiations. So Shrub--as always--got off. Another classic example of GOP-style "accountability."

Bush's is a masterpiece of "strategic underfunding." This means beneath the budget's evil appearance, there is an even more evil motive. Case in point: by underfunding most programs aiding the poor, he insures a pool of minimum wage workers for his corporate cronies. By underfunding public transportation and alternative auto and energy development, he insures a steadily growing market for his oil industry buddies (more gas-guzzling cars on the road!). By underfunding traditional agriculture, he helps out his chemical company pals (chief among them Monsanto). The latter are hard at work on genetifcally modified crops, using the fat pile of cash channeled to them via the science and technology budget (which was increased dramatically). Bush calls this common sense: We call it common sin.

Democrats.com is part of the "Fair Taxes For All" Coalition, which includes over 500 groups active in civil rights, labor, women's, environmental, disability, religious, gay and lesbian, health care reform, campaign finance reform, good government, older Americans' and children's issues. We are united in our opposition to the Bush budget. The House will vote today on the first part of the Bush plan, a tax cut of $1 trillion. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO STOP THIS BILL!!! Send our letter to your Senators and Representative by clicking below.

49 Democrats (all but Zell Miller-GA) were joined by 3 Republicans (Lincoln Chafee-RI, Jim Jeffords-VT, and Arlen Specter-PA) in approving an amendment by Tom Harkin (D-IA) to cut $450 billion from Bush's 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthy. The vote followed a tie voted - defeated by Dick Cheney - to provide funds for a Medicare prescription drug plan. During debate, Tom Daschle said the budget votes "define the Republicans for what I think they truly are: harsh and right-wing, with absolutely no indication of an appreciation for compassion." Trent Lott voted for the Harkin amendment in a cynical maneuver allowing him to bring it up for a second vote. Tell Jeffords (202-224-5141) and Specter (202-224-4254) to stand firm!

Bu$h's outrageous "Greed Before Need" budget comes up for a Senate vote this week, and Republicans are having trouble lining up the votes of moderates. "There is a possibility we could defeat the budget resolution (and) go back to the negotiating table," Tom Daschle (D-SD) said Sunday. Attention is focused on Jim Jeffords (R-VT, 224-5141) and Arlen Specter (R-PA, 224-4254), but calls should also go to Lincoln Chafee (R-RI, 224-2921), Olympia Snowe (R-ME, 224-5344), and Susan Collins (R-ME 224-2523).

The House recently passed a budget resolution, and the Senate is attempting to pass one this week. But guess what? There IS NO BUDGET. That's right, Bu$h is holding back his budget until AFTER the Republican Congress passes budget resolutions. On the street, that's called a shell game. In Republican Washington, it's just bidness as usual.

"The House approved President Bush's budget outline on a largely party-line vote yesterday, limiting government spending to provide room for the president's $1.6 trillion tax cut even as it rejected a Democratic proposal for a $60 billion tax rebate this year." House Speaker Dennis Hastert invoked the tired propaganda line that the GOP are trying to "take money away from government bureaucrats." Now that's rich -- considering that the House also passed an 11 percent increase in congressional committee funding. Or considering that Bush and the Republicans want to create an insane bureaucracy with their harebrained faith-based plans. We say that the GOP and Bush are trying to take money away from debt payment, Social Security, Medicare, education and military pay to give up to $1 trillion to the wealthiest 1%. And get this -- the GOP still wants a retroactive tax cut.

The CEO of Bush, Inc. is proposing a budget that would ruin the company. He says that if we cut production and prices the company will be better off because of some future revenue increases which he admits may or may not materialize. And rather than paying dividends to us, the shareholders, he wants to reward the board of directors with huge unearned bonuses. Now, are we going to let this guy take us for a ride, or have we been down this road before? Isn't this the same fanciful roadmap they tried to get us to buy in the 1980s? Hey! Stop! We know that this is a deadend with a dangerous car wreck at the bottom of the hill!

What the President is doing is frightening. While the White House contends that Bush is simply "talking to the American people" as he touts his tax proposal, his "movement" across America is like that of a Fascist dictator. He is exalting his one-party controlling government above citizens, above a contrary economic forecast, above the diverse and complex social needs of our people, and most disturbing, revealing a determined suppression of his opposition party: high ranking Democrats.

The Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses issued a report Thursday saying Bush's budget plan breaks his pledge to "leave no one behind." "The budget he has proposed leaves out over half of the black and Hispanic families," said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, (D-TX), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said, "There is a deep sense of concern which translates to a deep since of frustration" with Bush's budget plan. "The numbers don't add up," said Reyes.

Dubya won't go unnoticed at the upcoming Academy Awards. In fact, Bob Kunst and the Oral Majority plan to present him with an Oscar for "Best Performance in a Coup." Bravo! But Bush has so MANY co-conspirators to thank that his acceptance speech might go on until the next election.

Across the country, state governments are feeling a serious pinch as a result of the slowing economy - and therefore declining tax revenues. "In Texas, a mood of fiscal optimism has turned more gloomy in the wake of the economy softening, Medicaid costs spiraling and the budget effects of the record tax cuts that Gov. George W. Bush pushed through in 1999 before launching his presidential campaign. The state's $101.9 billion spending plan for the two-year period that ends Sept. 1 is coming up more than $700 million short at last count, and there have even been whispers of the need for a tax increase." Who can forget Dubya's response last year to the Texas budget shortfall: "I hope I'm not here to deal with it. I'm seeking another office." Of course, the derelict media underreported this shocking remark - Bush's version of Louis XV's famous remark, "Apres moi, le deluge" (when I'm gone, all hell's gonna break loose).

The Internet was created with federal research funds, championed by former Senator Al Gore. Now Bush plans to limit federal investment in research, focusing on medicine and Star Wars but shortchanging the National Science Foundation.

Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and former Federal Reserve Chair Paul Volcker endorsed the Concord Coalition's position that "there is no reason to lock in a large 10-year tax reduction to give short-term fiscal stimulus" to the economy. They said it would be better for Congress to provide a temporary tax cut covering the next two to three years, with an option of passing a second tax cut later if projected budget surpluses do materialize. Volcker said that if Congress approved Bush's 10-year program, it would be "so much harder to repair if things go wrong" and the surplus projections don't materialize.

Where is the outrage? It has moved to London, apparently. The Financial Times' Washington bureau chief wrote this week "Instead of picking out the striving teacher in the gallery of the House of Representatives last week, it would have been more honest if Mr. Bush had identified the grinning investment banker or multi-billionaire land owner. It is the intellectual dishonesty of this approach that is the most distressing." Well, yes, that and the unfairness, too.

Shrub visited South Dakota to pressure the state's two Democratic Senators into supporting his "greed before need" budget. But Tom Daschle (D-SD) met Bush head on by running TV ads denouncing Bush's plan.

Some moderates are arguing for a "trigger" condition to Bush's "greed before need" budget plan - so that tax cuts will only be "triggered" if debt reduction targets are met each year. But triggers often don't work. The trigger alternative is really a way for moderates to wimp out. Any responsible politician will recognize the gross unfairness - and massive harm - of Bush's plan, and simply vote it down.

The budget law requires Congress to adopt a budget before passing spending or tax bills. But no laws can stop Republicans from putting greed before need. ""This is happening without a budget, without hearings, without input from anybody," said Dick Gephardt. We thought "the law is the law" - so where is Henry Hyde? We demand an investigation!

"In 1997, the richest 10 percent owned 73.2 percent of total wealth, leaving an impressive 25 percent for the other 90 percent of us. These people do not need our assistance. We do not need to transfer more of the tax burden from them to the rest of us." So writes columnist Molly Ivins.

Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) serves on the Budget Committee. And he tears Bush's budget to shreds. No fuzzy math here - it's so crystal clear, even Bush could understand it.

CNN reports that "Structurally deficient bridges, unsafe dams and overcrowded and outdated school buildings are some of the problems cited in a report from an engineering group on the infrastructure of the United States, and it says it will cost $1.3 trillion to fix them." Crumbling schools alone need $127 billion. Tell Congress - Need Before Greed!

"Who will be hurt? First, of course, the usual suspects: the poor and near-poor, who, because they pay no income tax (though they pay quite a lot in other taxes), will get nothing from the tax cut but will bear the brunt of the spending austerity that the tax cut will force. And these victims include a third of the nation's children." Also, middle class parents with children over 18. And future seniors needing Social Security and Medicare. Just about everyone suffers, except the really rich. So writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times.

"The President's team knows how fierce the political battle will be. Bush has a lower approval rating than any other new President in 50 years. And after 18 months of selling his tax-cut plan, he has yet to inspire a national sing-along. So White House political guru Karl Rove is surveying his battle maps and strategic-planning calendars to orchestrate a multi-week sales tour mixing the hucksterism and pageantry of a presidential campaign with a strong undercurrent of blackmail. The focus is on the Senate, with its 50-50 split between parties (the House, Bush aides say, is a slam dunk). Six of the targeted Democrats are up for re-election in 2002. Says a gleeful Bush official: 'These Senators are going to hear about it at home.'" So writes Time Magazine.

After Bush pays for his tax cuts to the rich, there will only be $316 billion left of the surplus for the rest of the budget (treating Medicare and Social Security separately). But if the Alternative Minimum Tax is removed, only about $100 billion would remain. Then, Bush's magical $842 billion "contingency fund" would almost definitely eat up the entire $526 billion Medicare projected surplus -- and then some. In addition, the Social Security projected surplus is being used to pay down the national debt (and again, what if all these 10-year "projections" fall short?). But Bush also wants to create "personal retirement accounts" out of the SS surplus -- using the volatile financial markets as investment vehicles. Many fear that such Social Security privatization will create another opportunity for scam artists like Neil Bush, who looted the Savings and Loans during the Reagan-Bush years.

Bill Clinton gave us honest budgets and the first surpluses in decades. Shrub's first budget, like those of Reagan and Bush the Smarter, is full of baloney and lies. Here are some of the worst: (1) Bush's $1 trillion "reserve" is not even enough for the promises made throughout the budget, let alone to deal with unexpected events like a recession. (Sorry W, but even your Supreme Court Gang of 5 can't overrule the laws of economics.) (2) His budget is illegal because it spends surplus Medicare funds. (3) Not one penny is set aside for Social Security individual accounts, so either payroll taxes will increase or benefits will be cut to pay for them, directly contrary to his promises.

No one watches Bush like - well - Bushwatch! Check out his critique of Bush's comments on taxes, education, religion, and race.