Spending escalates under GOP watch
Y'all may well be growing rather tired of me criticizing Our Sainted President, so how's about I let some of his fellow Conservatives do it for me? Perhaps you'll take these folks seriously??
Nondefense spending has skyrocketed under Republican control of Congress and the White House, and critics say the outlays will hit the stratosphere with the passage this week of a drug entitlement for seniors.
The Congressional Budget Office reported that nondefense spending rose 7 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, nearly double the 4 percent discretionary spending caps that President Bush insisted Congress honor.
Since Mr. Bush took office in 2001, nondefense spending has leapt 13 percent — 21 percent if spending on the war on terrorism is included. And he is poised to become the first Republican president to sign into law a new federal entitlement: the $400 billion Medicare expansion to cover prescription drugs.
Sean Spicer, spokesman for Rep. Jim Nussle, Iowa Republican and the conservative chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the spending increases appear worse when lumping in the annual late-year "emergency" congressional expenditures that he said are little more than thinly veiled pork projects.
"Even without the emergencies, we're looking at [spending] numbers well above inflation, and that's definitely a concern," Mr. Spicer said.
Chris Edwards, director of fiscal policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the Bush record on spending has been a major disappointment.
"My impression of Bush is that I've never seen him give a speech in which he says government is too big and we need to cut costs," Mr. Edwards said, pointing out that President Reagan vetoed 23 bills in his first three years in office, while Mr. Bush has yet to unsheathe his veto pen.
So, this is the "I knew Ronald Reagan, Mr. President, and you're certainly no Ronald Reagan" argument? Conservatives have traditionally treated dissent in the ranks with pronounced disdain. To hear Conservative voices raised against the President warms this old Liberal's heart, and it makes me wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg. For a group so used to goose-stepping...er, marching...in lockstep, voicing criticism of Our Sainted President is truly a departure.
After all, this sort of reckless spending is exactly what Republicans have accused Democrats of for so many years. Of course, when a Democrats does it, it's the "recklessness of big-spending Liberals" at work. When Republican does the very same thing, it's "prudent and far-sighted leadership." Whatever....
So what DO you call a President who cracks down on civil liberties like a lock-step Republican and spends money like a profligate libertine Democrat? Easy- George W. Bush. This is what we get for electing a President known for talking out of both sides of his mouth.
