In Aug. 9 issue, Russell County News
By Barbara Sharp Zimmerman, Columnist

Well, now, all you George W. Bush fans, take note of the lovely big gift he's leaving you on his departure from office next January: a deficit of at least $482,000,000,000.00 for 2009 - that's 482 billion (with a "b") dollars - and that's not including the $10 billion per month cost of the unnecessary war in Iraq. Some experts predict the actual deficit will be more than $500 billion; that's half a trillion dollars!

I say it's your gift, although all of us, including our children, grandchildren and perhaps even our great-grandchildren - will have to pay off this monstrous debt. It's all the more disgraceful since dubya came into office to a budget SURPLUS.

But since so many of you still profess to think Bush will go down as one of our greatest presidents ever, why don't you accept this gift deficit as yours and yours alone? After all, you voted for him - probably twice - so you deserve him and his special gift. If everyone who voted for him would double whatever income taxes you owe for the next 20 years or so, you might make a slight dent in the deficit.

Of course, this enormous debt is not the only thing that Bush 43 is leaving us. On his watch have come skyrocketing fuel prices, rising food costs, the continuing tragedy of an unreconstructed New Orleans, the disaster of the housing market and a totally senseless war in Iraq bringing the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis and the maiming of many thousands more.

Plants and banks are closing right and left. Fifty-one thousand more jobs were lost in July, bringing the total to several hundred thousand for this year alone. Our highways are in disrepair and one in four bridges in the United States is structurally unsound and needs repair or replacement.

But there's no money for our crumbling national infrastructure. Heck, we can't even afford good health care for our wounded soldiers. Rather, we are pouring money blindly into Iraq, and to a lesser degree into Afghanistan, while Bush wants to make ill-advised (in a time of war) tax breaks permanent.

We don't even know how a lot of the money in Iraq is being spent; a great deal of it is going without any accounting through a lot of defense subcontractors such as Vice President Cheney's old company and its subsidiaries.

On my desk, I keep a little device that automatically counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining in Bush's tenure in office. Our eight-year long national nightmare is almost over. As of the date of this publication, there will be 163 days left and they can't pass soon enough to suit me.

Because we just can't afford any more of George W. Bush and his shockingly awesome gifts.