Phone Call, Mr. DeLay - It's Reality on Line 2
Proof positive that spending years in Washington will make you out of touch with reality. From The Washington Times article DeLay declares 'victory' in war on budget fat:
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.
Mr. DeLay was defending Republicans' choice to borrow money and add to this year's expected $331 billion deficit to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Some Republicans have said Congress should make cuts in other areas, but Mr. DeLay said that doesn't seem possible.
"My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet," the Texas Republican told reporters at his weekly briefing.
Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good."
Excuse me while I vomit all over my keyboard. If a company's books were run like the Federal governments, that company would be in business for all of a week. Yet the Republicans have “pared it down pretty good,” huh? They've only spent, what, ~$195 billion on the war in Iraq? They've only appropriated how many hundreds of billion dollars at “homeland security?” They've “invested” how many billions in streamlining the response between Federal, State, and local governments to enable prompt responses as we saw in NOLA?
Got it pared down, you say? Then why is there a nearly eight trillion dollar debt? Why is the yearly budget in the red? Arg. This is frustrating to hear rhetoric like this. I fear that eventually there will be a day of reckoning, a day when foreigners are going to stop buying our bonds and allowing for such debt levels. Meh.