[Moonman62]

"This will not fully kick in until 2006. If you are going to have exploding costs, they are way down the road, probably long after Mr. Bush has left the presidency," Mr. Josten said.

Isn't that what happened with the New Deal and the Great Society? The Bush administration is using the same tactic. Do what feels good and is irresponsible now in exchange for some votes, and let someone else pay for the mess and clean it up.

[nonliberal]

Agreed. This is nothing more than adding another welfare program onto the backs of taxpayers.

[meenie]

The problem is, it never gets cleaned up. Bush is a liberal wolf in sheep's clothing and for the bulk of Americans, the disguise is working perfectly. His father was capable of destroying the good will and conservatism of the Reagan Presidency in four short years and Junior is determined to follow in his footsteps with practically the same incompetence in his administration.

[LS]

To an extent, you are right. But the big problem is that people will NOT clean it up until they see a pressing need to do so---or, to use the media cliche, a "crisis." Sad, but that is a fact of life.

Reagan lambasted deficits his whole political life, but eventually had to sign on to them, because there was simply not the national public will to do anything about them. Likewise, Reagan promised to cut DOE and DOEd, but didn't lift a finger against them, because there was not a national "small government" mood.

I'm not so pessimistic as to think people will always think in a welfare mentality, but until the public changes, even the best of leaders can only go so far before it's committing political suicide. Many here think that's being "RINO," but I don't know at what point as an ELECTED official you can NOT give the people what they want. Now, if you look at the poll, the public will soon see that they DON'T WANT this, but that message has to sink in first.