Rick (from Stones Cr…

Rick (from Stones Cry Out) and I had a bit of a back-and-forth about raising taxes vs reducing spending to deal with the budget deficit in general and paying for the Katrina rebuilding specifically. Last night, Bush proposed a number of programs, and today he’s said how he wants to pay for them:

President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut. “You bet it will cost money, but I’m confident we can handle it,” he said.

“It’s going to cost whatever it’s going to cost, and we’re going to be wise about the money we spend,” Bush said a day after laying out an expensive plan for rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast without spelling out how he would pay for it.

…

Also Friday, White House officials said taxpayers at home will pay the bill for the massive reconstruction program and that this will mean a deeper budget deficit.

Bush said it’s important that government quickly fix the region’s infrastructure to give people hope. Asked who would pay for the work and how it would impact the nation’s rising debt, Bush said he was confident the United States could pay for reconstruction “and our other priorities.”

He said that means “cutting unnecessary spending” and maintaining economic growth, “which means we should not raise taxes.”

Deficits are (or should be) for emergencies, and this is certainly one. However, I think Dubya should take this opportunity to both avoid increasing it by too much and at the same time cut the waste and making some departments actually look for ways to cut back. Now is the opportunity to cut the fat (and prove DeLay wrong).

And let’s make these cuts permanent. It would be the smallest of starts, but a start it would be.

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out. Comments welcome.)

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