Congress spending like "drunken sailor"

[Donutboy 0]

McCain says

Congress is spending ‘like a drunken sailor’

By WILLIAM C. MANN

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Congress is throwing away astonishing amounts, “spending money like a drunken sailor,” and President Bush shares the blame because he is not using his veto power, Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday.

McCain, an avid critic of spending for lawmakers’ pet projects in their districts and states, said the president’s reluctance to veto legislation makes it harder for congressional negotiators to kill such spending....

.....“Any economist will tell you (that you) cannot have this level of debt of increasing deficits without eventually it affecting interest rates and inflation,” he said. “Those are the greatest enemies of middle-income Americans and retired Americans.” 

McCain says Congress is spending "like a drunken sailor"

Excuse me if I'm wrong but haven't we been sold on the theory that conservatives were the ones that could control government spending and had greater fiscal responsibility?

[CarolinaTiger 0]

this kind of news ought to make the dems incredibly happy, yet they still whine and complain.

i guess its the fact that mccain employed a MILITARISTIC term ('sailors') that doesn't sit well with the dems...it can't be the drunken part can it?

[Donutboy 0]

this kind of news ought to make the dems incredibly happy, yet they still whine and complain.

i guess its the fact that mccain employed a MILITARISTIC term ('sailors') that doesn't sit well with the dems...it can't be the drunken part can it?

No, the thing that upsets me about this is that I'm old enough to realize where unbridled government spending is taking us. I've seen governments around the globe collapse under the weight of such mounting debt and the resulting inflation.

THIS is where your new spending is coming from. There is no recovery except for the government raiding your checking and savings accounts and funneling it through American corporations. They're not doing it out in the public eye. They're doing it with credit cards. They're sending you "cash advances" and sending the bill in later years. Who do you honestly feel is going to pay for these multi-trillion dollar debts that the Reagan/Bush/Bush administrations have run up? Who do you think is going to pay for all of the wild spending that's going on in Congress today?

One of your own Republican Senators is firing a warning shot and you still refuse to listen. After all, Republicans can do no wrong!!

[Donutboy 0]

this kind of news ought to make the dems incredibly happy, yet they still whine and complain.

i guess its the fact that mccain employed a MILITARISTIC term ('sailors') that doesn't sit well with the dems...it can't be the drunken part can it?

No, the thing that upsets me about this is that I'm old enough to realize where unbridled government spending is taking us. I've seen governments around the globe collapse under the weight of such mounting debt and the resulting inflation.

THIS is where your new spending is coming from. There is no recovery except for the government raiding your checking and savings accounts and funneling it through American corporations. They're not doing it out in the public eye. They're doing it with credit cards. They're sending you "cash advances" and sending the bill in later years. Who do you honestly feel is going to pay for these multi-trillion dollar debts that the Reagan/Bush/Bush administrations have run up? Who do you think is going to pay for all of the wild spending that's going on in Congress today?

One of your own Republican Senators is firing a warning shot and you still refuse to listen. After all, Republicans can do no wrong!!

This pretty much sums up what I'm saying!!

    By Ronald Brownstein

    Los Angeles Times

    Monday 01 December 2003

    Seniors with big prescription drug bills, health maintenance organizations awaiting lucrative new subsidies, upper-middle-class families anticipating a fat tax refund, and Iraqi cities expecting new schools or hospitals all have reason to be thankful about President Bush's extraordinary success at pushing his agenda through the Republican-controlled Congress this year.

    There may be less celebration among the young people who will inherit the tab for these initiatives. Bush is funding every penny of every one of these goodies by increasing the national debt. Which is another way of saying that he's sticking the bill to the next generation.

    The scale of the transfer is dizzying.

    In just the last few months, Congress, at Bush's request, has doled out $87 billion to rebuild and secure Iraq and Afghanistan; approved a $401-billion defense appropriation bill, the largest ever; completed a $1-trillion tax cut on top of the $1.35-trillion reduction the president won in 2001; and approved a Medicare prescription drug benefit that will cost at least $400 billion over the next decade, probably more. If the energy bill is revived next year, add to the list at least another $26 billion in tax cuts for energy companies.

    All of this, it's worth remembering, comes when the federal government already faces its largest deficit ever — some $374 billion last year, $84 billion more than the previous record held by Bush's father, George H.W. Bush.

    Several reliable analysts project the federal deficit will soar past $500 billion this year — and then remain near that unprecedented level for the indefinite future, even if the economy recovers. It's an understatement to conclude, as the Goldman Sachs investment bank did in a recent report, that the budget process in Washington is "out of control."

    Project this forward a few years and the fiscal strain on future taxpayers could become excruciating. By 2012, Bush's tax cuts would reduce federal revenue by almost $400 billion a year, according to calculations by Peter Orszag of the Brookings Institution.

    Even without the new prescription drug benefit, the swelling number of seniors and the rising cost of care would push the annual bill for Medicare past $500 billion by then, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The drug subsidy for seniors would add at least another $65 billion to the tab. The CBO says that by 2012, defense spending would approach $600 billion annually — a number other analysts say understates the price tag for Bush's long-term national security plans.

    Then comes the final indignity for tomorrow's taxpayers: huge interest payments on the debt the government is accumulating to finance this binge. When Bush took office, the CBO estimated Washington was on track to eliminate the publicly held federal debt by 2008. That meant federal interest payments on the debt, which were running about $200 billion a year when Bush arrived, were expected to dwindle to virtually nothing by the end of this decade.

    Now, though, the latest estimates are that amid the economic slowdown of the last two years, and all the new spending and tax cuts Bush has pursued, the federal debt could soar to at least $7 trillion by decade's end. That means future taxpayers will have to pay at least $350 billion a year to service that debt, precisely as they are shouldering big bills for homeland security, defense and retiring the baby boom.

    To call this behavior a breakdown of fiscal responsibility misses its true nature. This is a stunning abandonment of generational responsibility. Washington is behaving like a father who steals his kid's credit card and goes on a bender.

    Individually, America's parents make sacrifices every day to provide opportunities for their children; but collectively, the nation is now pursuing precisely the opposite course — indulging itself even at the price of reducing opportunity for its children.

    Is anyone speaking for the next generation? At the national level, Democrats have condemned Bush's deficits and highlighted the costs of his tax cut. But they've undercut their credibility by repeatedly demanding more spending on their favorite causes; it's telling that the principal criticism from Democrats about the new Medicare bill is that it doesn't spend enough to subsidize drugs for seniors.

    Most Republicans are apparently hoping they can make these deficits disappear by ignoring or discounting them; the noble exceptions are a handful of true fiscal conservatives like Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Charles Hagel (R-Neb.). "There is a larger point to all of this," Hagel lamented after the Senate approved the Medicare bill last week. "Who is looking out for the future of the country?"

    It's unrealistic to expect too many legislators to take that long view. Budget discipline is as much an unnatural act for Congress as refusing campaign contributions; for legislators, the long run is always the next election. Only a determined president can prevent Washington from spending more than it is willing to collect in taxes. But Bush has led the U-turn from the policies that produced surpluses for the three years immediately before he arrived.

    The best case against Bush's budget policies comes from the arguments he's made for his national security strategy. Bush often defends his vision of preemptive defense by insisting America must confront tough problems now so future generations won't face them down the road. Yet in his budget, Bush is creating enormous problems for future generations by avoiding tough choices today.

    By slashing taxes while he increases spending, Bush is governing as if he is in the Matrix, where the laws of gravity don't apply. But here in the real world, what goes up still comes down, which means kids too young to protest today will pay dearly tomorrow for the massive debts Bush is charging to their future.

Snowballing Debt Awaits Tomorrow's Taxpayers

[Tiger Al 0]

I think his goal is to run up so much debt that many government programs will have to be reduced or eliminated altogether.

[Donutboy 0]

I think his goal is to run up so much debt that many government programs will have to be reduced or eliminated altogether.

Ding, ding, ding, ding...... Goodbye Social Security!! Goodbye Medicare!! Hello soup kitchens!! The Republicans have been trying to kill Social Security and Medicare since it's inception in the FDR presidency. I think they've finally found their vehicle!!