Farce.

farce    (färs)
n.

1. 1. A light dramatic work in which highly improbable plot situations, exaggerated characters, and often slapstick elements are used for humorous effect.
   2. The branch of literature constituting such works.
   3. The broad or spirited humor characteristic of such works.
2. A ludicrous, empty show; a mockery: The fixed election was a farce.
3. A seasoned stuffing, as for roasted turkey.

Okay, we're not talking turkey stuffing here.  We are talking, of course, about definition #2, otherwise known as B***'s latest budget.  An ungainly document, the reviews are just now pouring in.  Here are some spicy quotes:

At some point Bush will have to address the deficit. I and many other conservatives fear that when the time comes, higher taxes, not spending cuts, will be the order of the day.

--Bruce Bartlett, New Republic Online

In this bloated budget, the president seeks funds to keep marriages intact, to prevent overeating, to encourage teenagers not to have sex, and to help give Americans the willpower to stop smoking.

--Stephen Moore, Cato Institute

IF THE FEDERAL budget is a mirror of national priorities, consider this skewed choice in President Bush's spending plan: By 2009, child care assistance would be cut for at least 200,000 children in low- and moderate-income families -- and that's by the administration's own estimates. The real number of children affected could be as high as 365,000. That same year, those with annual incomes of $1 million or more would be paying an average of $155,000 less in income taxes as a result of Mr. Bush's tax cuts.

--Editorial, Washington Post

On the spending side far more than on the tax side, the last three years, indeed the last five years since Newt Gingrich left the Speakership of the House of Representatives, have been ones of total fiscal irresponsibility...

--Martin Hutchinson, Budget Analysis, Washington Times

"[Bush] is a social conservative, but he is not an economic conservative," said Donald Devine, vice chairman of the American Conservative Union. "Traditional conservatism has been both economic and social conservatism, and this guy has only one of the two."

--As quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The administration doesn't even want to talk about the second decade, when the cost of the Medicare drug benefit could hit $2 trillion. A similar short-term focus is apparent in Bush's fiscal plan, which omits $50 billion or so for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, does not take account of expected changes in the alternative minimum tax, and dares not look past 2009, when deficits will balloon again even if Congress implements the president's proposal as is.

--Jacob Sullum, townhall.com

Eating people may be wrong — but it is a smart career move.

--John O'Sullivan, National Review (okay, this has nothing to do with the budget, but anytime cannibalism and necrophilia are mentioned in a conservative magazine, it's worth a quote)

 

But the funniest thing I've read so far, in reference to the difference between the white lies most budgets contain and the current craptacular (I'm so happy I read Brad deLong this morning):

[The normal white lies] are the "this never happened to me before," or "She's not really my girlfriend, we just went out a few times" kind of lies. The dishonesty in the 2005 budget is more like something out of a movie on the Lifetime network, with the guy whose wife and three kids in Chicago don't know that he has a whole other family in Texas, plus another one in Canada and everything's fine until the three wives accidentally meet... Well, you know the rest.