Posted on 12/09/2003 8:46:30 AM PST by Ron H.
Running for president in 1968, the late Alabama Gov. George Wallace liked to say "There's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and Republicans." Today's Republicans have proved him right. But there is a good deal more than a dime involved.
Turns out Republicans are spending just as much or more than the traditional tax-and-spend Democrats did during their best years, as evidenced by the House's approval Monday of a $373 billion omnibus spending package, that would finance most government domestic programs. It spends, spends and spends.
The facts speak for themselves.
Total federal spending has grown a whopping 16 percent since 2001, with 55 percent of that additional spending unrelated to the Sep. 11 terrorists attacks and the war on terrorism, according to Brian M. Riedl, a research fellow with the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Riedl reports federal spending has increased over the last four years from $16,000 per household to $20,000 per household, the highest level since World War II.
Pork projects have ballooned from under 2,000 five years ago to 9,362 in the 2003 budget, amounting to more than $23 billion, Riedl concludes. This includes $725,000 for the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, $200,000 for the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, $80,000 for the Hot Springs Bike Trail in Arkansas and $180,000 for work on the Farmers Market in Dallas.
And the pork funding has taken a new twist. Instead of Congress funding grant programs for federal agencies, governors and mayors, who would in turn make federal fund awards based on need, Congress now is more likely to bypass the agencies and governors and specifically earmark funds for local projects. People seeking federal grants can no longer simply file grant proposals to unbiased agencies. Now it is best for them to hire a Washington lobbyist to get funding.
Conservatives have a point. Republicans generally have not proved to be better watchdogs over the tax dollars of hard-working taxpayers, and in a time of ballooning deficits.
The House spending package now goes to the Senate, where it will probably meet a lot of opposition -- not for less spending, but in reordering what to spend tax dollars on.
If I could've voted in '92, it'd have been for President Bush. Perot was so obviously a flake.
But under the Clintons, the GOP generally stuck to its conservative principles. It's disappointing to see them slide left now that their man is in the WH.
And you Mr. Libertarian Party has offered what? Papa Smurf for a Senatorial candidate in Montana, a Gubernatorial candidate for california who fled to Canada, and a Presidential candidate in 200o who stated that 9/11/01 was America's fault.
Dude you should clean your own house before you criticize others, IMO.
Oooh, you brought the big guns of the Libertarian beltway thinktanks, and I am supposed to be impressed how?
A hell of a price to pay, wasn't it? Why couldn't they stick to their principles without helping to put Clinton in the White House?
If only half (55%) of the 16% increase in federal spending since 2001 is WOT, then the WOT is only a minute part of the deficit, if any at all. I want to double check the actual numbers, so I'll be back with those.
Our so-called leaders are like a bunch of drunken sailors and the captain on a sinking ship. They are deceived, their brains addled. While the ship sinks, occasionally passengers wake up and ask why it is listing and the sailors tell them to go back to sleep; everything's okay...
click here for the rest of the paragraph, archived from a July 2001 Free Republic post
The average European tax rate would be an interesting stat to find out.I wouldnt mind paying the taxes of an average Monaco or Jersey resident though.
Cato is. Anyway how many of those eggheads in the beltway thinktanks(conservative, liberal, Libertarian) actually leave their ivory towers and go out into fly over country.
Ah, the unspeakable.
I don't blame you, it will be more horrible than anyone can imagine. And only a fool would think it can't happen.
This I will tell you, people in this country will never pay what it will take. Something will give.
"If you believe anything, you believe that."
Maybe they didn't mention deficits because the government was running a surplus during the last few years of the 1990s?
Like people on FR didn't know. You actually belong to a political party of sorts, IMO, it is called "I don't belong to a political party, but comment all the time about politics and am always railing against everybody and how everything is awful 24/7."
JMO, you are closer to the Howard Dean camp.
IMO, it is a pathetic way to convince people to give you power. Democratic voters are pathetic already.
So you knew? So you lied. What a shocker!
JMO, you are closer to the Howard Dean camp.
JMO, you are closer to the mentally incompetent former freepers than any other group.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.