Bush Leadership

President Bush will use his new budget to propose cutting the size of the Army Reserve, and the National Guard to their lowest levels in three decades and stripping up to $4 billion from two fighter aircraft programs. This will cut the Reserve from the current allowable 205,000 members to 188,000, the actual number of soldiers at the end of 2005. A similar approach will be taken with the National Guard cutting it from the allowable 350,000 to 333,000, which is also its current level.

The reasons for these moves are obvious, and they aren’t leadership or to save money.

The Reserve and the National Guard are having major recruiting problems due to the constant deployments that are needed for Bush’s so-called war on terrorism. Because of these recruiting problems the army has not been able to fill its needs to authorized levels. That is the real reason for the cutbacks.

The cutback in the development and production of the F-22 fighter is a sign that the president is once again passing the buck. This would take money now planned to spend in 2007, during Bush’s presidency, and putting it off into the next administration. We are not saving money, just moving it. Gratification now and more debt later. Once again he is piling additional debt onto our children and grandchildren. Of course he will, as usual, claim credit for doing something that is actually nothing. You know, like WMDs in Iraq, One Child Left Behind, and Rebuilding New Orleans.