New US Budget, New Record Budget Deficit

[Don Corleone]

Aside from which, you need to learn American political speech, Antiochus, if you intend to live here and become an actively interested citizen.

A budgetary cut, as in Bush has cut federal spending on education, defined:

Congress appropriates programs based on not only what they believe they will need now, but assumes a certain level of growth for the program, that typically outpaces inflation. If a budget comes out that increases funding to a program, but at a lesser rate than the originally approved growth rate, it's called a cut. This is what happened with the education budget, and it's ludicrous. As Xiahou rightly pointed out, the US spends more per student than any other country in the world. Raw dollars is not the answer. We need to address the causes of our underperforming school. This is what 'No Child Left Behind' was supposed to be about, before Bush decided to cave and give Kennedy whatever he wanted. What resulted was a giveaway that makes little sense. If the old adage 'If everyone is upset by it, then it must be a fair law' is true, than NCLB is quite possibly the fairest public policy program ever enacted.

Similarly, the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (MPDB) has been and will continue to be an abysmal failure. The Pharmaceutical Company Profit Restortation Act would be a better name for it. I am an ardent capitalist, and it's rare you'll hear me on a screed against 'Big ____' (tobacco, oil, what have you), but this is one case where the shoe fits:
-In most cases, the 'benefit' doesn't reduce payments by the elderly. In more than a few cases, it actually increases their payments.
-Recipients are required to scan the internet weekly to see which version of the program will fit their needs best for the coming month.
-In several tests, HHS staffers responsible for educating the public on how to use the website could not produce meaningful results and were not able to select the best program choice for a given test case, when limited to 1 hour or less of web research time.
-People who have already seen to their own needs are NOT allowed to opt out of the program.
-In many cases, drug companies will be compensated at close to twice the rate they currently are, for the exact same drugs that are currently in the market.
-Congress is forbidden, by the law itself, from negotiating prices or asking drug companies for lower cost alternatives.
-For agreeing to make all this bonus cash, the drug companies make an additional fortune in tax exemptions (the only portion of the bill I actually approve of).
And the bill for this abmonination? The most conservative estimates put forward by the White House are $400 billion over 10 years. Most analysts, including National Review, put the price tag at a much higher cost. Insanity.