[Mo1]

Abortion won't make or break this country; out-of-control spending, debt and bankruptcy will

I agree that pork spending coming out of Congress needs to be control

But you do realize one of the big reasons for the deficit is due to the war on terror and the recession that Clinton left us with

Should we stop the war on terror??

Should we take back the tax cuts?

[BJClinton]

Should we stop the war on terror??

Should we take back the tax cuts?

That's more of the reasoned response I had hoped for. No and no. I'm no Democrat so spare me the 'take back the tax cuts' BS. Lowering taxes increases long-term tax revenue. Peroiod.

The war on terror is a must. It's win or perish, just like WWII and the Cold War.

Cutting spending would involve, say, rolling back health and human services funding, cut the bureaucracy, consolidate programs etc. Hell, just freeze spending for a few years. What did we get? The Farm Bill, Prescription Drug Bill (I like part of it, BTW) and no restraint whatsoever in pork barrel add-ons. That just ain't conservative.

[Your Nightmare]

A very significant portion of Bush's increases have been for descretionary non-defense spending. Here are his numbers compared to a true conservative.

Spending by Department
Percent Change in Real Outlays in First Three Years

Department	Reagan	Bush
Agriculture	-13.2%	8.5%
Commerce	-29.0%	9.6%
Defense	18.6%	27.6%
Education	-21.8%	60.8%
Energy	-19.6%	22.4%
Health & Human Services	9.0%	21.4%
Housing & Urban Dev.	-3.7%	6.1%
Interior	-4.6%	23.4%
Justice	1.2%	11.0%
Labor	-29.4%	56.0%
State	9.5%	32.5%
Transportation	-13.0%	-1.3%
Treasury	31.1%	-7.0%
Veteran Affairs	-3.9%	29.4%

source: Budget of the U.S. Government and Mid-Session Review for FY2004.