Strib Editorial: GW's Budget

From the Anti-Strib vault:

Today's" editorial in the Star Tribune asks not if the priorities in Bush's budget are good, but if we can believe that it will cut the deficit. Fair enough. I'm not brilliant at math and really need to put pencil and paper in front of me (with a calculator) to comprehend some of the economy talk folks engange in. That's not what I'm going to mention. I'll leave that to Sequel and Tracy and the other big-brains. (In other words, have at it boys.)
Let's look at one of the later statements in the editorial:

Meanwhile, to pay for yet another new round of tax cuts, the president would chip away at programs most Americans find highly valuable, such as nutrition assistance to the elderly, rural land conservation, community policing and academic counseling for disadvantaged high school students.

What effect will chipping away on federal programs have? Surely we cannot believe that merely chipping away at a program that helps feed our aging parents and grandparents will eliminate that program let alone leave them starving. None of these programs will disappear... God knows a certain slice of the population won't let THAT happen. In fact, these programs will all increase.
These programs ought to see real cuts, as opposed to the reductions in spending increases they will see. Our own individual charity ought to play more of a role in feeding the edlerly. We ought to urge more groups to help fund rural land conservation efforts. Don't let the government do it all... and let's not have the government urge companies to do this work either. That's something that we can do. Ask Target to float some more money to a specific area that you say can't get funded with charity or without government money. Ask Cargill, ask any of them. Keep asking.
And keep giving. (Although, it would be much easier if we had more individual tax cuts!)