Tough Choices

Uh, oh. We're rapidly coming upon some of those difficult questions we'll be forced to face in responding to Katrina. The other night, the Prez laid out an ambitious rebuilding program that's been estimated to cost $200 billion--$200 billion dollars that's not currently in the budget. Where will it come from?

Bush has already made one tough choice about that:

Amid growing concern among congressional Republicans about the huge cost of the planned reconstruction effort, Bush said the federal government can foot the bill without resorting to a tax increase. "You bet it's going to cost money. But I'm confident we can handle it," Bush said. "It's going to mean that we're going to have to cut unnecessary spending."

No new taxes. I'm sure we could even read his lips on the subject if we wanted to. So we're going to go into the bloated federal budget to get rid of all those unnecessary expenditures that Congress usually loves so much. Except there may be another tough choice waiting in the wings. According to Tom DeLay, there is no bloated federal budget.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said yesterday that Republicans have done so well in cutting spending that he declared an "ongoing victory," and said there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.

. . .
"My answer to those that want to offset the spending is sure, bring me the offsets, I'll be glad to do it. But nobody has been able to come up with any yet," the Texas Republican told reporters at his weekly briefing.

Asked if that meant the government was running at peak efficiency, Mr. DeLay said, "Yes, after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared it down pretty good."

And that was before Bush called for all the new spending. But the White House apparently has some ideas of where to cut spending--ideas that Congress has previously rejected. According to today's Washington Post:

Among the programs slated by Bush for cuts were Medicaid, which he now wants to extend to evacuees, and the Army Corps of Engineers, which is faced with the huge burden of repairing levees and dredging waterways wrecked in the storm.

Very clever. Let's offset new spending by cutting those very programs we're intending to expand. Now that's facing down tough choices.