Good News, Bad News

Well, the good news is, government programs are being cut. Programs that have no business soaking up tax payer money will be phased out over the course of the next few years and go the way of the dodo. This is certainly good news. Programs like the Federal Timber Safety Net program will be cut away like so many trees.

However, in typical Statist style, the programs will only be replaced by NEW programs, to meet the whims of the current administration. Like Momma, who the day after Christmas goes through the closet and throws out some of the old toys to make room for the new ones, President Bush is simply making room for his new toys. The spending budget for 2007 is an astronomical $2.77 trillion, with a "T." You can see what your tax money has bought and almost paid for here.

It Doesn't Take a Poll

Gallup: More Than Half of Americans Feel Bush Deliberately Misled Country on Iraq WMD

By E&P Staff

Published: February 03, 2006 1:40 PM ET

A new Gallup Poll, conducted in late January, reveals that just 39% of Americans approve of the way President Bush is handling Iraq, with 58% disapproving.

Over half (53%) now say the administration "deliberately misled the American public about whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," with 46% disagreeing. Gallup notes that this finding is "essentially reversed" from one year ago.

Further, some 51% say the U.S. "made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq." Yet, despite this, only 17% expect a significant reduction of U.S. troops in Iraq in the next year.

The partisan divide on all these questions is enormous, but with Independents now aligning much more with Democrats. For example, 84% of Republicans feel the president did not mislead the country on WMD, the exact percentage of Democrats who feel the opposite.

One interesting new question asked if respondents would feel the war in Iraq was a "success" if the new government there is composed "mainly of Muslim religious leaders." Almost half said that it could still be called a "success."

The latest poll was taken Jan. 20-22, based on interviews with 1,006 adults.

Quite a shift of opinion there. And yet the country continues to discuss things in terms of Republican versus Democrat. Common sense, it would seem, is not so common any longer. I would like to point out that Independents, contrary to this article, are not "aligning much more with Democrats." We are thinking for ourselves. Which is something that can rarely be said of either major political party.