The Republican Spending Explosion

[Tigermike 3,711]

  January 23, 2004

The Republican Spending Explosion

by Veronique de Rugy

Veronique de Rugy is a fiscal policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

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Executive Summary

When the Republicans gained control of Congress in 1994, they promised to eliminate the deficit and reduce wasteful spending. For several years, the GOP partly upheld its commitment to fiscal responsibility by modestly curtailing spending growth and balancing the budget in 1998 for the first time since the 1960s.

Unfortunately, the balanced budgets of the late 1990s seemed to create an easy money mindset in Congress, which began a spending spree that continues unabated today. Between fiscal years 2001 and 2004, total federal outlays will rise by about 24 percent, even without the recently passed $87 billion supplemental bill for Iraq. Real discretionary spending increases in fiscal years 2002, 2003, and 2004 are 3 of the 10 biggest annual increases in the last 40 years. Large spending increases have been the principal cause of the government's return to massive budget deficits in recent years.

Although defense spending has increased in response to the war on terrorism, President Bush has made little attempt to restrain nondefense spending to offset the higher Pentagon budget. Nondefense discretionary outlays will increase about 31 percent during President Bush's first three years in office. Congress has failed to contain the administration's overspending and has added new spending of its own. It is clear that Republicans have forfeited any claim of being the fiscally responsible party in Washington.

Looking ahead, Republicans need to rediscover the reforming spirit that they brought to Washington after the landmark 1994 congressional elections. Fiscally conservative Democrats should challenge big-spending Republicans and work to cut unneeded programs from both the defense and nondefense parts of the budget.

In command of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, Republicans are primarily responsible for the current budget mess, and it is Republicans who have the power to pare back spending to get the federal budget under control once again.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-derugy.html

[Tiger Al 0]

Mike, are you alright??? This article doesn't sound like your usual GOP pep rally lead by the Neocon Cheerleaders to me.

[Tigermike 3,711]

Mike, are you alright??? This article doesn't sound like your usual GOP pep rally lead by the Neocon Cheerleaders to me.

I always try to be Fair and Balanced!

[DKW 86 7,899]

Conservatives are not at all happy with the BUdget situation. I know I am not. Allowances for the War and 911 are growing old. We need to CUT SPENDING, and I mean drastically.

I know I can waste MY MONEY better than HOR can.

[CCTAU 3,536]

Conservatives are not at all happy with the BUdget situation. I know I am not. Allowances for the War and 911 are growing old. We need to CUT SPENDING, and I mean drastically.

I know I can waste MY MONEY better than HOR can.

You are correct. But its not to the point that I'm ready to chop heads. It may take some time before we getthis huge ship turned arouond. I can tell you that the repubs are getting an earful from ever their own constituents. But its still better than ANY demoncratic alternative.

You see, Al, we are not BLIND followers and can think for ourselves. The party mantra does not flow in our veins, common sense does. You, and all demoncrats, should try it sometimes.

[War Eagle 96 10]

Conservatives are not at all happy with the BUdget situation. I know I am not. Allowances for the War and 911 are growing old. We need to CUT SPENDING, and I mean drastically.

I know I can waste MY MONEY better than HOR can.

I agree, WAY too much spending. Free drugs? Geez, what a waste.

[Tigermike 3,711]

I can tell you that the repubs are getting an earful from ever their own constituents. But its still better than ANY demoncratic alternative.

You see, Al, we are not BLIND followers and can think for ourselves. The party mantra does not flow in our veins, common sense does. You, and all demoncrats, should try it sometimes.

See Al, that is the type of comments I expected from this article. The democrats will go to obscene lengths to defend their candidate and or the party.

Conservatives are not at all happy with the BUdget situation. I know I am not. Allowances for the War and 911 are growing old. We need to CUT SPENDING, and I mean drastically.

[DKW 86 7,899]

Conservatives are not at all happy with the BUdget situation. I know I am not. Allowances for the War and 911 are growing old. We need to CUT SPENDING, and I mean drastically.

I know I can waste MY MONEY better than HOR can.

I agree, WAY too much spending. Free drugs? Geez, what a waste.

Whoa, guy. The point must have really flown over your head here. I am not against free meds. I just have had enough dealings with the Fed Govt to fully realize that if Drug A costs the average consumer $10 and gets it overnighted to you, that by the time the FG gets thru mismanaging the deal in its historical way, the drug will somehow cost $20-30 and will take 6 months to deliver.

Those who can, do.

Those who cant, teach.

Those who are totally clueless, they go to work for the FG and screw all our lives up for perpetuity. :roll:

[War Eagle 96 10]

DKW, maybe it did fly over my head. How can you be for free meds, but not be for govt using its police power to take money from me to buy the drugs for others?

[CarolinaTiger 0]

Those who can, do.

Those who cant, teach.

i resemble that remark....

[Grumps 3,706]

I, too, am extreme frustrated by what has happened since W. has been in office. I don't see how the GOP leaders can show their faces based on what they have done with the budget. What are they thinking????

Now the moron wants a lunar base and to go to Mars!!!! I consider myself a scientist, and am all for new discoveries, but I'll be &^$$#$% if we should spend BILLIONS for space explorations when there are hundreds of thousands of kids dying because they don't have immunizations available.

I don't know what the answer is. Apparently it isn't the current GOP... and it definitely isn't TPDTR (That Party Down The Road)

HHHHHEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DKW 86 7,899]

DKW, maybe it did fly over my head. How can you be for free meds, but not be for govt using its police power to take money from me to buy the drugs for others?

Okay, how about a newly invigorated FG? One that is not the same old system of fraud and abuse. How about one that is a compromise between a very lean and mean business model and The Great Society Programs run amuck like it is now?

For the life of me I cannot figure out how Reagan's cutting the fat out of the FG has gone so far away that it is not even mentioned by either party anymore. Whatever happened to Sen. Proxmire's Golden Fleece Awards for Fleecing the American People?

Is there no one, nor party, that can see the waste and inefficiency of the FG and see that there are BILLIONS flushed away every year? I know in corporate America Today, they are cutting the fat out of everything in the successfully run companies, forgive me if I dont include Enron, Tyco, MCI-WorldComm, et al here. We are the leanest corporate environment in the World. Why cant we make the FG more responsive?

First we need an informed population that can read and understand the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and Amendments and can realize that the USA is owned by the people. That is not Mr Bush's nor Mr. Clinton's White House, it is ours. We do not have Kings or Royalty here. We are all citizens that are at least legally on the same playing ground from the weakest to the President. We just need the people to start to get far more active in a REAL democratic FG.

Maybe that is where all the internet stuff leads us. A real Democracy someday!