[jw]

Obama took over when the boat was 1/3 full with water .. he brought with him few bags of cement, a drill, his Noble Peace prize and the last 2 years of Cracked magazine.

... not easy to put a stop on a runaway train. It's spending that has already been committed to.
Spending has slowed and turned around now after the (intentional) reckless spending of Bush.

Bush Says Dwindling Surplus Will Halt Government Growth

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/24/po...4CND-BUSH.html

Ten years ago yesterday.

President Bush said today that there was a benefit to the government's fast-dwindling surplus, declaring that it would create "a fiscal straitjacket for Congress." He said that was "incredibly positive news" because it would halt the growth of the Federal government.

In a 45-minute news conference in a community hall next to a recreational-vehicle park here, Mr. Bush avoided giving specific answers to several questions about how he would find the money for his next big initiatives — from missile defense, to overhauling the military, to reforming Medicaid — without dipping into Social Security surpluses that both parties have declared off-limits. And he made it clear he would not re-think his tax cut, saying, "I can't tell you how proud I am to be traveling around the country and people say, `Thanks for the $600.' "

At the same time, Mr. Bush talked in some detail about the economic slowdown, which he called a "correction," and left open the possibility that he might dip into the Social Security surplus if a further economic stimulus was needed.

"I've said that the only reason we should use Social Security funds is in the case of an economic recession or war," Mr. Bush said.

It will be a long while before there is any certainty about whether the economy has bottomed out or is headed toward a recession. In the meantime, Mr. Bush said he was intent on getting Congress to follow his spending priorities by passing large increases for the military and for education and putting everything else on hold.

"If Congress goes off on a spending spree in other areas, it's going to create a competition for defense dollars," he said, adding later, "and there's going to be a battle."

Mr. Bush's news conference was his first extended session with reporters since arriving at his ranch here early this month. By putting down a strong claim for military spending and also by hinting, even in a vague way, that Social Security might not be untouchable, Mr. Bush seemed to be pulling together the strands of an emerging strategy for what could be difficult fiscal times ahead.

He spent much of the session on military issues, including formally announcing the nomination of Gen. Richard B. Myers to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, General Myers is a soft-spoken but influential figure in the Pentagon, who will now be thrown into the middle of the battles to find the billions of dollars that it will take to build even a modest missile defense system. Mr. Bush said today that he chose the Kansas native in part for his expertise in running the United States Space Command in Colorado. But General Myers is also deeply familiar with China's rise as a military power and North Korea's nuclear capability, both of which required his attention in the mid-1990's when he commanded American forces in Japan.

"This is going to be great," General Myers told the president today. Another four-star general, Peter Pace of the Marines, who currently runs the Southern command covering Latin America and the Caribbean, will take General Myers's current post as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Neither is expected to encounter difficulties during confirmation hearings in the Senate.

For all his talk about upcoming budget battles, the escalation of violence in the Middle East, and his pending decision on whether to give some illegal aliens the right to work here, Mr. Bush appeared more relaxed today than at any news conference during his seven months in the presidency. Perhaps it was the informality of the atmosphere: A community hall that had clearly suffered some neglect over the years, tucked in the woods off a small road in this one-stoplight town. Perhaps it was the scant attendance: There were barely enough people to fill two rows of folding chairs.

So Mr. Bush bantered about dragging reporters into the 100-degree heat of his adopted Texas town, and insisted that even if politics are getting nasty again in Washington, "It's a great tone here in Crawford."


Mission accomplished .. see .. he even takes blame for the crisis before it happened.