Republicans: Trouble in the Ranks

Posted on September 22, 2005

The Washington Post gets an earful from very unhappy Republican senators and congressmen who want to know how we're going to pay for Hurricane Katrina -- not to mention the impending Hurricane Rita which could cause severe damage to oil refineries and send pump prices to $5/gallon, in a worst case scenario.

Polls show that most Americans want to cut spending in Iraq (which is topping out at a mind-boggling $1 billion a week). So far, this administration has incurred huge deficits and engaged in two incredibly mismanaged wars which have consumed human and economic resources at a blistering pace. The war in Afghanistan made sense but, as Bill Clinton recently observed, recent reports indicate that we are in danger of losing that country to the Taliban because our resources are stretched too thin.

So, where is the money going to come from? Borrow more billions from the Chinese? Start a staged pullout from Iraq? Give back some of the pork contained in the recently-passed highway bill? All suggestions are on the table, but there's no consensus. And Bush's poll numbers are sinking fast, leaving Republicans with a gloomy future at the midterms if they don't do something to stop voters' unhappiness at the way the country's resources are being managed.