First Door on the Left

Should Al Franken run against Tom DeLay? Juanita seems to think so. I think she may be on to something (or maybe that’s “on something”).

What say, Al? You up to it?

Meanwhile, DeLay is not backing down from his plan to have a luxury cruise ship serve as headquarters for high-rolling Republicans during their convention in New York City next year.

“The Norwegian Dawn, a 2,240-passenger luxury cruise liner, has 15 decks, 14 bars and lounges and babbling brooks.”

Norwegian Dawn

Seniors with big prescription drug bills, health maintenance organizations awaiting lucrative new subsidies, upper-middle-class families anticipating a fat tax refund, and Iraqi cities expecting new schools or hospitals all have reason to be thankful about President Bush’s extraordinary success at pushing his agenda through the Republican-controlled Congress this year.

There may be less celebration among the young people who will inherit the tab for these initiatives. Bush is funding every penny of every one of these goodies by increasing the national debt. Which is another way of saying that he’s sticking the bill to the next generation.

The scale of the transfer is dizzying.

In just the last few months, Congress, at Bush’s request, has doled out $87 billion to rebuild and secure Iraq and Afghanistan; approved a $401-billion defense appropriation bill, the largest ever; completed a $1-trillion tax cut on top of the $1.35-trillion reduction the president won in 2001; and approved a Medicare prescription drug benefit that will cost at least $400 billion over the next decade, probably more. If the energy bill is revived next year, add to the list at least another $26 billion in tax cuts for energy companies.

All of this, it’s worth remembering, comes when the federal government already faces its largest deficit ever — some $374 billion last year, $84 billion more than the previous record held by Bush’s father, George H.W. Bush.

Several reliable analysts project the federal deficit will soar past $500 billion this year — and then remain near that unprecedented level for the indefinite future, even if the economy recovers. It’s an understatement to conclude, as the Goldman Sachs investment bank did in a recent report, that the budget process in Washington is “out of control.”

Project this forward a few years and the fiscal strain on future taxpayers could become excruciating. By 2012, Bush’s tax cuts would reduce federal revenue by almost $400 billion a year, according to calculations by Peter Orszag of the Brookings Institution.

Even without the new prescription drug benefit, the swelling number of seniors and the rising cost of care would push the annual bill for Medicare past $500 billion by then, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The drug subsidy for seniors would add at least another $65 billion to the tab. The CBO says that by 2012, defense spending would approach $600 billion annually — a number other analysts say understates the price tag for Bush’s long-term national security plans.

Then comes the final indignity for tomorrow’s taxpayers: huge interest payments on the debt the government is accumulating to finance this binge. When Bush took office, the CBO estimated Washington was on track to eliminate the publicly held federal debt by 2008. That meant federal interest payments on the debt, which were running about $200 billion a year when Bush arrived, were expected to dwindle to virtually nothing by the end of this decade.

Now, though, the latest estimates are that amid the economic slowdown of the last two years, and all the new spending and tax cuts Bush has pursued, the federal debt could soar to at least $7 trillion by decade’s end. That means future taxpayers will have to pay at least $350 billion a year to service that debt, precisely as they are shouldering big bills for homeland security, defense and retiring the baby boom.

To call this behavior a breakdown of fiscal responsibility misses its true nature. This is a stunning abandonment of generational responsibility. Washington is behaving like a father who steals his kid’s credit card and goes on a bender.

You can rest easy, though. Mr. Bush’s rich friends and contributors are doing just fine. Thank you.

The Colorado Supreme Court today threw out a controversial Republican-backed redistricting plan in a decision that politicians said could have national implications in congressional elections next year.

In its ruling, the full court decided that a Republican redistricting plan, pushed through the state General Assembly in the closing days of this year’s session, was unconstitutional because Colorado’s congressional districts had already been redrawn in 2002 by a Denver judge after lawmakers could not agree.

The Supreme Court decided that under Colorado’s 1876 constitution, new congressional boundaries could be drawn only once a decade, following the federal census.

“The plain language of this constitutional provision not only requires redistricting after a federal census and before the ensuing general election, but also restricts the legislature from redistricting at any other time,” said an opinion delivered by Mary J. Mullarkey, chief justice of the seven-member court. “In short, the state constitution limits redistricting to once per census, and nothing in state or federal law negates this limitation. Having failed to redistrict when it should have, the General Assembly has lost its chance to redistrict until after the 2010 federal census.”

I hope the Texas court is listening.

Tom DeLay and Karl Rove must be having fits about now.

There is this from CNN…

TIKRIT, Iraq (CNN) — U.S. troops fought off two simultaneous attacks on military convoys Sunday in northern Iraq, killing 46 attackers, wounding 18 and capturing eight others, military officials said.

During the gunfights, U.S. tanks crushed makeshift barricades set up by the guerrillas and destroyed three buildings from which the Iraqi fighters were launching attacks.

Some of the attackers appeared to be wearing the black uniforms of the Fedayeen Saddam, a militia loyal to ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, said Master Sgt. Robert Cargie, a spokesman for the Army’s 4th Infantry Division.

The convoys carrying military supplies and Iraqi dinars came under attack in Samarra, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Baghdad, the Army’s 4th Infantry Division said.

“This was a coordinated, simultaneous attack,” Cargie said, with one convoy being attacked on the east side of the city and the other coming under fire while in the west side of Samarra.

Guerrillas set off improvised explosive devices as the convoys approached, then opened fire from nearby rooftops and alleyways with rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, Cargie said.

Troops from the 1st Battalion, 66th Armored Regiment and U.S. military police responded with a barrage of cannon fire from tanks and armored personnel carriers, Cargie said.

Then there is this from Aljazeera…

US troops in the Iraqi town of Samarra have admitted to perpetrating a bloodbath, with one occupation spokesman confirming nearly four dozen people were killed.

Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald told journalists on Sunday that all the 46 were killed when troops fought off multiple attacks on military convoys.

But local residents said US troops killed innocent bystanders when they opened fire on anything that moved around midday.

Workers at a nearby pharmaceutical plant said at least two colleagues were killed and many wounded as they walked out of the factory gates at the end of their shift, downed by a US tank shooting randomly in all directions.

At 13:45 (10:45 GMT), just as staff at the State Enterprise for the Manufacture of Drugs and Medical Equipment finished their shift, a second tank arrived and opened up with machine guns, employees said.

One French journalist also reports seeing blood spattered on the ground and bullet holes in the sentry box to the left of the white factory gates.

The truth has to be in there someplace.