Listen, I'm not a big-government guy necessarily. If there are inefficiencies and overlaps, of course it's in the country's best interests to consolidate and streamline, saving the taxpayers' money without hurting the end-user. But the problem with this President is he just has no credibility... there's no reason to believe anything he says. Which is why today's news that he's cutting billions of dollars worth of community housing and anti-poverty programs from HUD's 2006 budget really strikes me as unfair.
You see, the problem is this President has proven time and again that he is willing to lie and deceive to accomplish something that he thinks is idealogically right. He thinks Americans need to be told what to think, rather than being given arguments and evidence and being allowed to judge for themselves. [Update: See this excellent article in TAP on this subject.] Hence he fabricated reasons to justify a war he'd decided long before was necessary. And he's ordered efforts to convince the public that Social Security is in crisis so as to do away with the most successful government program in history. And now he's cutting anti-poverty programs that he says are redundant, but honestly... why should we believe him? Why shouldn't we think he's just doing this to gut federal programs for the poorest Americans to make way for tax cuts, a mission to Mars and other presidential priorities.
It's sad when a President depends so much on dishonesty and manipulation.
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