George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 94

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Here’s how the U.S. federal budget is determined:

“I think we’ll need a budget for amenities for the troops stationed at the light water reactor.”

Bush picked up a pen and began writing down his thoughts on a blank piece of paper.

These amenities, though basic, included recreational facilities with neatly arranged cues to stimulate the male medulla oblongata [the part of the brainstem responsible for autonomic functions], lounges to provide users with tranquility and comfort, or convenience stores and restaurants where one could experience the true taste of American capitalism.

If the budget were small, they might try to save money by saying, ‘You can feel North Korea’s primeval forest and nature, so that’s healing and relaxation!’ But with a generous budget, and to continue the tradition of the U.S. military, which had excellent soldier welfare since before World War II, it was essential.

Some might ask if it’s okay to build so much on North Korean soil, but in reality, the light water reactor was practically extraterritorial, so it wasn’t even a problem.

And he could go ‘personally’ to see the light water reactor again.

“Understood. I will compile the proposal to be submitted to Congress.”

In the case of the Bush administration, a proposal completed through discussions with his close aide, the Chief of Staff, is submitted to Congress. This is called the budget resolution. In Congress, which holds the power of taxation and expenditure, committee reviews, i.e., upper and lower house hearings, are held, and heads of each agency attend to explain their spending plans in detail.

Afterward, the Appropriations Committee issues an ‘expenditure authorization law’ that allows the budget to be used, and the subcommittee decides on the scale of expenditure. The Appropriations Committee has 12 subcommittees, making a total of 24 expenditure bills, and the subcommittees describe the expenditure plans in detail.

The bill adopted by Congress is then returned to the President.

“And I can either pass this bill or veto it.”

“What would you like to do?”

“I’m not looking to build a full-fledged camp at the light water reactor.”

Bush wanted amenities for the light water reactor’s security personnel, but what came back to Bush was a budget proposal on the scale of a U.S. Forces Korea joint military exercise, with three generations of ancestors on the move [a hyperbolic expression implying excessive extravagance]. No matter how wild Bush was, he wasn’t crazy enough to approve this budget.

“Will you reject it?”

“Of course!”

Bush was so excited that he threw the budget proposal far away. He was so excited that he didn’t throw it forward but slipped and threw it backward, bouncing off the thicker White House bulletproof glass and flying back to Bush.

If you look at the situation itself, it was like something out of a sitcom.

“Why are all the budget proposals like this these days when I just make a suggestion!?”

The problem was that the person filming the sitcom was incredibly serious.

This phenomenon wasn’t necessarily bad. The fact that there was room to interfere in other countries like this was evidence that the United States was internally and externally quite relaxed. If they were busy with internal affairs or short on budget, such a large-scale budget proposal wouldn’t even be passed, so it was no exaggeration to say that it was proof that the United States was doing well.

But isn’t there usually ‘common sense’ and ‘propriety’? It felt like that was disappearing more and more in the Federal Congress. Perhaps Congress was rushing in to extract as much as possible from the massive budget until it couldn’t be used anymore.

“Still, there’s a limit!”

Bush didn’t even care that his hair was being messed up and grabbed it tightly. Even while doing this, he thought it was fortunate that his hair was strong. He didn’t pay much attention at first, but as he entered his 30s, he started losing hair, and Kim Gap-hwan’s life, who ate Propecia [a medication for hair loss] like it was rice, flashed before his eyes.

And after the regretful slideshow of hair passed, he felt his head spinning again as he thought of these damn budget proposals.

‘Ugh, I can’t restrict budget spending either. Is it so difficult to use it broadly instead of pouring it all into one place?’

Well, it would be better than all the related departments closing down because Congress didn’t pass the budget, but that didn’t mean they should pour the budget into one department.

“How about pouring the budget into a certain project?”

“That’s why I’m saying you shouldn’t do that!”

If he had to pick one, there was a place he could do it, but it happened to be the next-generation military equipment development that he was pushing hard right now. No matter how much money you poured into this, it wouldn’t show immediate results, and the long-term benefits were uncertain, so there was no better way to waste money.

‘But if I do that, I’ll get a lot of criticism later.’

He would do it if necessary. But when he considered whether it was truly necessary, he still had doubts. It’s good for the military to become stronger.

But if that takes precedence over increasing GDP and quality of life, isn’t that a militaristic country like North Korea, not the United States? In a situation where they need to pump the economy to prevent the bubble from bursting, what are they going to do by making the military stronger? Suppress the citizens?

‘Hehe, I’m going crazy.’

In a way, it was a very fortunate problem to have. Other countries couldn’t even afford welfare with their existing budgets, so they were raising consumption taxes. At least the United States didn’t know where to spend its massive budget and couldn’t handle it.

“Still, damn it, there’s a limit!”

Perhaps it was because he had been working while giving up his vacation that his stress had reached its limit. Bush finally started repeating his hysteria.

“Please calm down, Mr. President.”

And it was the Chief of Staff who stopped it. With a few words from the Chief of Staff, Bush soon regained his reason. However, both Bush and the Chief of Staff felt that each other was becoming increasingly mentally unstable and desperately felt the need for a vacation, even for a short time.

Not a vacation to travel somewhere. Just a vacation to rest at home. They didn’t need a week; even just a few days would do.

The great nation of America was a country that, for better or worse, moved the world when it moved. Being the head of that country meant receiving more than twice the stress. If Bush had been insensitive to his conscience, he might have already taken over North Korea, advanced to mainland China, started World War III, and been preparing for World War IV.

But fortunately, the result of mixing the person Bush and the contents inside him, Kim Bush, was truly conscientious and, through the spiritual experience of possession, was in some ways more faithful than anyone else. America was flowing in a relatively good direction.

What he did wasn’t very moderate, but the result was moderate from the perspective of the United States, so Bush himself felt it was okay. Of course, in China, he was rumored to be ‘a human who sold his soul to the capitalist devil,’ and in North Korea, he was rumored to be ‘the guy who took that capitalist devil.’

Of course, the starting point of that rumor was Kim Jong-il. It didn’t seem like something a crazy person should say, but it was too full of craziness to say that what Bush was doing wasn’t crazy, so Bush had a chance to look back on what had happened for about half a year after hearing this.

After looking back, he regretted it greatly, because he couldn’t have committed a bigger crime. On second thought, the explosion was a bit small. It would have been nice if it had been a big explosion that made the word apocalypse come out of his mouth.

Of course, only in pleasant imagination. When he thought seriously, he was truly disappointed that if he had secured Nampo Port earlier, he could have deployed a powerful carrier strike group in the Yellow Sea that could have suppressed North Korea, China, and Russia at once.

Anyway, back to square one, Bush, whose personality was gradually exploding as the days went by, needed a vacation.

“I’ll do my best while you’re away, Mr. President.”

He wasn’t saying he would handle administrative tasks. He was saying to look forward to how many approval documents and reports would be piled up on this crude bulletproof desk when the vacation was over. In fact, remembering that there was quite a bit piled up last time he went to Australia for a short time, it wouldn’t be easy this time since it was a long-term vacation.

At first, he was going to rest for three nights and four days. However, at the recommendation of the Chief of Staff, who was wary that he couldn’t completely relieve his stress with this, he changed the vacation period to six nights and seven days. This time, he decided to take some time away from work unless something equivalent to war happened.

‘I’m taking a whole week off!’

It was truly a miracle. However, the President’s vacation was quite different from ordinary people’s vacations. Depending on how the President spends his vacation, the President’s vacation could be a ‘message’ expressed domestically and internationally.

For example, Putin uses his vacation as propaganda material, filming and publicizing his leisure activities to the public. This worked very well as an image of a strong president in the early days of his administration, but as it went on, it turned into a political tool to show off his余裕 [a Japanese word meaning composure or余裕].

It’s a way to pretend that he’s still okay even when his approval rating drops and Russia is in a corner. Of course, if you carefully retrace Putin’s steps, it’s not just a bluff. In any case, the President’s vacation is a political tool.

‘So I should just stay at home.’

He wasn’t a true homebody, but what could he do? Otherwise, he would suffer from all kinds of public opinion. The news he remembered was no joke. George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump were all criticized for going to the golf course.

In the case of George W. Bush, he was playing golf during Hurricane Katrina; in the case of Obama, the public opinion was serious due to the killing of an American journalist by ISIS; and in the case of Trump, he criticized Obama’s vacation during Obama’s administration.

‘When the hell are you supposed to take a vacation then!’ That was Bush’s feeling. The position of President of the United States was a position where you would be criticized no matter when you took a vacation. ‘When you’re a little free’ was the best answer, but in reality, there was virtually no time when there were few domestic and foreign issues in any country in the world, even throughout the East and West.

Not only that, but it was almost impossible to do anything properly these days wherever you went. Wherever you go, ‘Bush! Bush! Bush!’ This slogan and the Stars and Stripes follow him around, so how can he rest?

However, Bush had a lot of money. Not just a lot of money, but money that he couldn’t spend all his life if he used it normally. If he wanted to see an opera, he could invite an opera singer to his house, and if he wanted to play golf, he could rent out a golf course.

However, he was planning to give up exercising and everything else on this vacation and just blank out or read a book, but he was still uneasy.

“I hope nothing happens this time.”