Posted on 02/13/2006 9:06:54 AM PST by jmc813
The Bush administration released a proposed 2007 budget last week that increases federal spending to a staggering $2.77 trillion, a sum that is 4 times larger than the Reagan-era budgets of the early 1980s. With a public angry about useless earmarks and bridges to nowhere, and a Republican congressional delegation promising to restore some small measure of fiscal discipline, it's troubling that the administration chooses to ignore economic reality and increase spending without regard to revenues and deficits.
Consider these sobering facts:
· With a 7% rate of growth, federal spending will double in just 14 years. It once took 100 years to double the federal budget.
· Federal spending has grown twice as fast under Bush than Clinton, averaging 6 and 7% increases compared to the 3 and 4% increases of the 1990s.
· The biggest increases in federal spending under Bush are not related to the war on terror or homeland security. Education spending, for example, grew a whopping 137% between 2001 and 2005.
· The projected deficit for 2006 is $423 billion, $100 billion more than 2005. The real 2006 deficit, including the $5 billion per week we spend in Iraq, will be much, much higher.
· The administration will ask for at least $120 billion in so-called "off budget" funds for Iraq and Afghanistan over the next year, perpetuating the deception that war spending somehow doesn't count toward the budget deficit.
· The new Medicare prescription drug benefit will cost at least $30 billion in 2006, and is projected to cost $1.2 trillion over the coming decade. The program creates an unfunded liability twice the size of future Social Security obligations.
There has been a great deal of talk in Washington about scandals lately, but few seem to understand that enormous federal budgets provide the mother's milk for every backroom deal, questionable earmark, and sleazy lobbying trick. Like many of my Republican colleagues who curiously vote for enormous budget bills, I campaign on a simple promise that I will work to make government smaller. This means I cannot vote for any budget that increases spending over previous years. In fact, I would have a hard time voting for any budget that did not slash federal spending by at least 25%, especially when we consider that the federal budget in 1990 was far less than half what it is today. Did anyone really think the federal government was not big enough just 16 years ago?
oooh!
Who was it that said, "Engage the world in commerce, but make no political alliances."? Sounds good to me.
"...not corporations who seem to be in control of federal and state governments these days."
So far as I understand that is the definition of a corporate fascist state and I agree with you. That is what we have.
As long as both parties get the $$$ from the corporate "heads" who take far too much in salaries and underpay their workers and their investors, our "leaders" will continue to bilk the citizens of the country.
Our GOP misrepresentatives have nothing to worry about, being in the majority. I'll have to go with a Republican president, and a demonrat congress next time. I'm totally sick of this waste clogging up the DC toilet.
Bump.
W needs to Veto some spending bills.
Ron Paul on lobbyist reform, quite excellent...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1554737/posts
So far as I understand that is the definition of a corporate fascist state and I agree with you. That is what we have.
As long as both parties get the $$$ from the corporate "heads" who take far too much in salaries and underpay their workers and their investors, our "leaders" will continue to bilk the citizens of the country.
Couldn't agree more. Seems Ben Stein recently figured this out as well.
No kidding. Who says the GOP isn't the Progressive party?
The answer is clear for this administration.
"I believe that's the role of the federal government, to help people"
...GWB, 7-23-04
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