[speaker001:] well uh I don't know I think the budget is really out of hand right now and especially in this election year I think that uh there ought to be some at least some conversation about what we are supposed to do about this
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah see it like seems to me you know that everyone's offering you know their token little tax cut program you know when it's when it's just such a bad time for it you know
[speaker001:] right right and uh well as you said mostly they are token cuts uh especially what for instance George Bush is offering
[speaker002:] no it the ninety seven cents a week
[speaker001:] yeah ninety seven cents a week now what that's really not gonna do a lot of good it doesn't seem to me to your average middle income person you know another ninety seven cents hell you can buy a Coke or something for that
[speaker002:] uh-huh hell I mean mostly you know it's it's not actually a a a cut it's just a cut in the with hold in the amount with held you know
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] um yeah I don't just don't see it changing my life style a whole lot
[speaker001:] nah that ninety seven cents really isn't gonna do it for me either uh
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] I I haven't really heard much of what the other people other candidates have said that has made a lot of sense to me either especially the Democratic candidates uh don't seem to be coming up with much that really sparks my interest as far as yeah maybe that could do something to affect our budget at this point
[speaker002:] um-hum yeah I mean you know in in retrospect um was it was it Mondale or Dukakis that said you know I'll I'll tell you right now I'm gonna raise taxes
[speaker001:] I believe it was Dukakis but I I can't
[speaker002:] it was Dukakis yeah I have a lot of respect for him
[speaker001:] yeah I mean that's better than George Bush who came out and said no I will not read my lips or whatever and then you know ten months later he said well sorry you know I I can't follow through on this but it seems to me that uh
[speaker002:] yeah um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] that the budget is so out of hand and especially now that they say okay the cold war is over and we're supposed to be getting a peace dividend of you know of X number of billion trillion dollars a year well I'd really like to know where where that money is actually gonna go because
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] in my opinion I don't think I'm ever gonna see any of this peace so called peace dividend
[speaker002:] oh yeah I know it it's
[speaker001:] I mean if they could actually put put something together and make I'm not really in favor of large government social programs either because I feel that they waste money also but with this peace dividend it seems like you could set up some kind of like public works
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] projects like they had in the thirties or whatever
[speaker002:] oh yeah I I I I I think that would be a great idea you know like the conservation corps you know where it would it would it would help unemployment greatly
[speaker001:] right exactly exactly and in that way we could really focus on building the infrastructure structure of the country
[speaker002:] and it  yeah our infrastructure is in is in I mean we we've we've hurt ourselves incredibly over the last fifty fifty years of the cold war yeah
[speaker001:] yeah and and there's no way that we can ever really recover from from the state that we're in right now unless at least I feel unless we focus on the infrastructure and I surely don't hear anybody saying that right now
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum um yeah I I agree totally um I mean we this this it just seems so you know so ridiculous that it was allowed to happen um I I'm in college right now and oh really where do you go
[speaker001:] so am I uh IU
[speaker002:] right I go to Georgia Tech um and in my I had political you know the required political science class a couple of years ago
[speaker001:] uh-huh um-hum
[speaker002:] and one of the things we discussed was you know were where the budget situation how how the budget situation just got so out of hand and essentially what happened was and I think it was like in eighty in the um tax year of eighty one um
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] Ronald Reagan basically said you know I'm gonna give this much of a tax cut to the tax payers and and created this this ludicrous budget that he knew that that um that the Congress would not in the right mind pass and Congress Congress realizing that they were gonna lose a the Democratic Congress realizing that they were gonna lose a propaganda war you know by by you know slicing by by removing the tax cut
[speaker001:] right uh-huh
[speaker002:] further cut the taxes and created you know that that that you know what created the the huge deficit that year which moved us into the trillion dollar deficit
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] and you just I mean it's just
[speaker001:] you you just have to wonder what they're thinking in Washington
[speaker002:] I mean it's just like you know playing chicken with a loaded gun
[speaker001:] yeah uh well it's it's more than a loaded it's a loaded cannon I mean they've got trillions of dollars to spend every year and they in my opinion don't do a very responsible job of spending that money
[speaker002:] yeah um-hum well yeah and what really bothers me is it just seems like if if anyone were to say you know well I'm gonna raise taxes and cut the budget and we're gonna have you know we're we're gonna we're gonna have to do some unpopular things I mean he wouldn't have a chance of getting elected
[speaker001:] oh no
[speaker002:] I mean it's kind of like Rome and the bread and circuses thing you know where where people just want want to have
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know what ever will make them feel good right now you know and
[speaker001:] for the for the moment and that's what really is getting me about what George Bush's stand on the budget is right now is that he is saying I am gonna give you this ludicrous little tax cut so that you'll be happy come November and you'll elect me again
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker001:] and then I'm gonna go on and just forget everything that I said or you know it doesn't seem that it's gonna make much of a difference
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum yeah that I mean I don't know I I I don't I don't think George Bush will make the American people happy with ninety seven cents a week
[speaker001:] no no not at all
[speaker002:] well I just don't think it was a well thought out incentive
[speaker001:] no