Does Dubya Hate our Troops?

Being that we are in the middle of a war, might be starting another one with Iran, have a President who is trying to send 21,500 more soldiers into the conflict, and on the horizon is an estimated 26% increase in the number of soldiers who will require on-going medical care when they return from the Middle East, I would have wagered that Bush’s "balanced budget by 2012" proposal would include huge increases in spending for the Veterans Affairs Administration. Given that there has been an 83% increase in VA spending over the course of the Bush Presidency, surely further increases had to be assumed when the Administration submitted their plan, right? The budget needs balancing, but I’m sure that cuts to things like NIH and NPR would be where this balance would happen. Bush would never cut something as near and dear to his heart (and ours) as funding for the welfare of our troops, would he? Yep, I was wrong.

The budget proposal that the Bush Administration submitted to Congress includes cuts to VA spending for 2009 and 2010, and then freezes the budget at the 2010 level until 2012.

Everybody seems to recognize that this will not work. Politicians on either side of the aisle have decried the proposal as “impossible” and “absurd” given the recent history of steady increases in VA spending (and the little problem of the influx of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan). When questioned about the cuts, White House budget office spokesman Sean Kevelighan, said that the proposed numbers "don't reflect any policy decisions. We'll revisit them when we do the (future) budgets." (To be read: "Silly you, we made up those numbers on an Arby's napkin.")

There are two options here. A.) George W. Bush hates our troops. Or more likely, B.) The Bush Administration made up a plan to balance the budget that they know cannot succeed. I kind of like how they did it. I think I will make my next budget the same way. “Well, I have $10 in the bank. I’ll write down here on this budget sheet that I will use that $10 to buy a jetliner. Look! I bought a jetliner with $10! Hooray.” Oh, imagine the world we could live in if budgets were made with fantasy math and pixie dust and the government gave everybody an apple pie just for being American.

*Thanks to Jenny for the tip.