From NYT: Bloomberg in Sudden Trip to Capital, Seeking Funds. Wasn’t this the headline last month? Then, Bush and Congress gave noncommittal promises of aid for security costs, and Bloomburg gave a press conference in which he said he was optimistic that funds were coming. Now,
New York officials said that the president’s plan would provide […]
To help Israel weather their recent economic crisis, the Bush administration, according to the BBC, has promised $1B in direct military aid and $9B in loan guarantees. This, at a time when the federal budget doesn’t have one extra cent to help American states and cities in their fiscal crises, which are universal, deep-reaching, and […]
Just some figures that seem relevant: According to the OMB’s historical budget publication, in 2001, over 20% ($308.5 B) of our on-budget federal outlays went to the military. And that was before any buildup for Iraq. The figure being tossed around in the press is closer to $400B for our current yearly military spending. And […]
I hadn’t meant this page to turn into a Paul Krugman defense site, but after watching Treasury Secretary John Snow’s rebuttal of Krugman’s op-ed last night on the PBS Newshour, I feel I need to take issue with his support of Bush’s tax plan and the resulting budget deficits. For one thing, he argues that […]
It looks like the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster is going to bring about a renewed commitment to NASA and space travel. I tend to be skeptical of the need for the program, but merits of the issue aside, it seems the sheer scale of expenditure is left out of the debate. NASA is hardly the […]
I actually hadn’t noticed Paul Krugman’s latest entry on his website before I posted yesterday’s comment on the OMB’s website, but he makes the same point I did, further adding that 45 percent rise over five years is not 45 percent growth. (It’s more like 7.5%). It’s hard to imagine that any previous administration’s budget […]
I’ve never been of the mind that statistics can be made to say ANYTHING, but two misleading tricks are common. The first is to muddle the difference between average values and median values. Why for instance, does the White House insist on referring to AVERAGE family income when talking about tax cuts (from its website: […]