The lowest presidential approval rating in Gallup Poll history.
How could it be otherwise?
Yet as if a refuge from public rejection, Bush is pumping the military budget while stripping or ignoring all others.
How could it be different?
With few supporters and Dick Cheney making the decisions in an outsourced fiasco that will haunt us for decades, Bush relies on the military.
Foreign relations and the diplomatic corps are underfunded while the military force budget increases to a ratio of 18 to 1.
In this fifth annual edition of the “Unified Security Budget,” as with the previous four editions, a non-partisan task force of military, homeland security, and foreign policy experts laid out the facts of the imbalance between military and non-military spending. The ratio of funding for military forces vs. non-military international engagement in the Bush administration’s proposed budget for the 2009 fiscal year has widened to 18:1 from 16:1 in the 2008 fiscal year. [.pdf here]
Nuts!
IT IS HARD to believe how far this republic has fallen since President George W. Bush took office.
Eight years ago, the United States had a budget surplus, peace and prosperity reigned, and America was universally respected.
True, Bill Clinton had besmirched the office of the presidency by his self-indulgence. In his memoir, he would put down his dalliance with a White House intern to the worst of all possible motives. He did it because he could.
But that pales in comparison to what Bush has done to the country.
John McCain says, “I did everything I could to get him elected and re-elected.“