Bush's address designed to scare

Long gone are the days when big, intrusive government was a conservative's whipping boy. Welcome to Bush II, with concurrent deficit spending and tax cuts.\n"My budget includes the largest increase in defense spending in two decades…because while the price of freedom and security is high, it is never too high," President George W. Bush said last Tuesday in his State of the Union address. "Whatever it costs to defend our country, we will pay." \nIn real dollars, it's costing taxpayers over $1 billion a month -- that's over $30 million a day. While that amount may be necessary, the path Bush proposes to take on our federal budget and national economy will make our national debt larger and will do little to move our economy out of this recession. In addition to the vast sums spent on the war effort, Bush proposes to double the amount spent on homeland security efforts. \nThe so-called "economic stimulus package" will make permanent the temporary tax reductions passed last year. After his last stimulus package, we're still stuck in a recession that means those of us graduating anytime soon will be hard-pressed to find suitable employment. Graduate schools have benefitted, however, with greatly increased applications. Those applications come from those recent graduates who can't find the jobs Bush said were at the heart of his domestic economic plan. \nWhile saying his first priority is to "protect security," Bush's three key areas in the speech were the war on terrorism, homeland security and the economy. \nIn a 180 degree turnaround referring to international intervention, he said "the price of indifference would be catastrophic." Sadly, it took the events of Sept. 11 for Bush to recognize the importance of international diplomacy and coalition building. Just before Sept. 11, he was systematically alienating the United States from the international community. He pulled us out of the Kyoto Protocol, an international environmental treaty, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Bush had begun building a wall around America -- that is, until we needed the help of other counties in our war on terrorism.\nAlmost the entire first half of Bush's address was filled with negative rhetoric, seemingly designed to scare Americans into supporting his plan. Peril, dangerous regimes, destructive weapons, bioterrorism and deadly diseases were just a few of the many frightening terms littering his speech. It appeared that without giving in to all of his particular plans to fight terrorism, we would lose our sense of security. \n Call me un-American, but cutting taxes and increasing spending dramatically at the same time is not good fiscal policy -- especially when it comes from the same folks who cut vital spending in areas important to the poorest members of American society. Bush noted welfare reform, too, saying he wanted to "reduce dependency on government" and give every American "the dignity of a job." \nIt's great rhetoric, but not everyone can have a job, especially with the economic recession we're living through right now. We must spend more now than in previous years on welfare programs, including job training and education, while they are so desperately needed by so many Americans.\nWhile national security is rightly Bush's top priority, one might question many of the details of his plans while not questioning the idea of achieving that aim of security at all. Let's not allow our sense of patriotism to carry us away with the Bush Express train. Our tracks should should be laid in the direction of responsible international diplomacy, coalition building and domestic economic prosperity.