A gambling addict and President Bush have the same symptoms of recklessness with money.
The gambler drains his bank account to wage more and more on losing bets, while not buying food, not paying the mortgage, not providing health care for his family.
As for Bush, he demands more money the treasury doesn't have (communist China loans the money) to wage wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while refusing to pay for domestic responsibilities.
Federal programs are taking budget hits because of Bush wars that estimates now say will cost at least $3 trillion.
With Iraq operations costing $12 billion per month and Afghanistan another $4 billion, historic programs are thrown crumbs and, worse, forced to begin collecting or hiking fees that once would have been unthinkable.
Shortchanged in the Bush budget, the Forest Service and the Interior Department are planning on increased fees for the use of public recreational areas. As one critic put it, "Our government wants to charge us $5 or $10 for a walk in the woods—our woods."
The visionary President Teddy Roosevelt began land banking public lands to create the world's finest system of protected wildlands for public use. Now they're in shameless disrepair, years behind in maintenance and increasingly vulnerable to forest fires, which last year cost the Forest Service and Interior nearly $2 billion.
If John McCain becomes president, and fulfills his promise to keep U.S. forces in Iraq for 100 years along with multi-billion-dollar civilian contractors, will any of the programs Americans depend on at home still be in existence?
