Brain Fertilizer

In the months leading up to the election, I heard dozens of people express dismay at spending in President Bush's first term. Some were Democrats looking to find anything they could that was negative to justify voting against him...some were Republicans who reasoned that if we had a President who spent like a Democrat, why not just have a Democrat?

I always responded (maybe a total of more than a dozen times) that Bush was allowing increased spending for a number of specific reasons: the safety of the nation (with Homeland Defense spending), the successful prosecution of the Global War on Terror (with military spending), and to offset the recession brought on by the Clinton-era bubble and made worse by 9/11. I predicted that part of his plan was to let people complain about the deficit enough that cutting in spending to rein in the deficit would nearly be mandated. A rope-a-dope strategy for all the people who reflexively criticize everything he does.

When pressed, I admitted I had no proof it was going to happen, but that it was a valid assessment based on his typical strategic moves, character, and political history.

Guess what? I was right:

President Bush said Monday he will submit a federal budget that will cut the deficit in half in five years and maintain strict spending discipline.

Now, I'm not so naive as to think I was the only person saying this. I was the sole individual pushing this view in the comments of several different blogs, but I'm sure there were plenty of other people saying the same thing in places I didn't see. I hope this gets me some 'street cred' in the blogosphere. [grin]