Bush creates timeline to leave Iraq!

I'm a consistent Democrat now, but that doesn't mean I always like the Democratic Party. I find them weak kneed and apologetic. I may hate Bush's policies, but he doesn't apologize for them.

So now that Bush has shifted to the left of Hilary Clinton on taxes and withdrawing from Iraq, he's done it forthrightly:

The president forecasts a $48 billion surplus by 2012, keeping a promise he made two years ago when strong revenue predictions made it look far easier....

"Our formula for achieving a balanced budget is simple: create the conditions for economic growth, keep taxes low and spend taxpayer dollars wisely or not at all," Bush said in his budget message.

Democrats said the forecast of a budget surplus in 2012 was based on flawed math that included only $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 and no money after that [my emphasis]. The budget plan also fails to include any provisions after this year for keeping the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at the wealthy, from ensnaring millions of middle-class taxpayers.

Wow. A politician unapologetic about forcing an Iraq withdrawal by cutting all war funding and willing to raise taxes to balance the federal deficit. That's what I call political courage.