Posted on 01/05/2004 1:19:09 PM PST by G. Chapman
Conservatives simmer as spending mushrooms under Bush WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservatives wait warily as President Bush makes final decisions about his election-year budget, three years into an administration on whose watch spending has mushroomed by 23.7%, the fastest pace in a decade.
While Bush has emphasized repeatedly the need to rein in spending, overall federal expenditures have grown to an estimated $2.31 trillion for the budget year that started Oct. 1. That is up from $1.86 trillion in President Clinton's final year, a rate of growth not seen for any three-year period since 1989 to 1991.
Much of the increase stems from the fight against terrorism and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also expanding relentlessly have been huge programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which grow automatically with inflation, higher medical costs and more beneficiaries.
What has vexed conservatives most is the 31.5% growth since Bush took office in discretionary spending. That is the one-third of the budget lawmakers approve annually for defense, domestic security, school aid and everything else except Social Security and other benefits.
Such spending grew by an annual average of 3.4% during Clinton's eight years.
Further infuriating conservatives, Bush and the Republican-run Congress have enacted a $400 billion, 10-year enlargement of Medicare; $87 billion in expanded benefits for farmers; and $40 billion for increased veterans' payments and the Air Force's leasing and buying of refueling tankers.
"Re-election has become the focus of Republicans in the White House and Congress. And those in power have determined the road to staying in power is paved with government spending," said Brian Riedl, who monitors the budget for the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Mounting spending has combined with the recession and two major tax cuts to turn a four-year string of annual surpluses into deficits that last year hit $374 billion, the worst ever in dollar terms. Administration officials and private forecasters say red ink could hit $500 billion this year, with more to follow.
Things look bleak in the long run, too. Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said the Medicare bill could cost from $1.7 trillion to $2 trillion during its second 10 years, as the huge baby boom generation retires and foists added costs on taxpayers.
"The U.S. budget is out of control," the investment bank Goldman, Sachs & Co. wrote its clients, projecting large deficits for the next decade. "Any thoughts of relief thereafter are a pipe dream until political priorities adjust."
In the new budget Bush is to send Congress on Feb. 2, Bush is expected to propose limiting the growth of discretionary programs to 4%, perhaps excluding defense and domestic security. Last February, Bush proposed holding discretionary spending increases to 4% this year and next, although aides now say he meant to exclude the military and anti-terror activities.
Discretionary expenditures will hit an estimated $873 billion this year, assuming the Senate completes a House-passed measure in January combining the year's seven remaining spending bills. That is $27 billion, or 3.2%, more than last year.
"President Bush has been resolute in pursuing his priorities of winning the war on terrorism, protecting the homeland and strengthening our economy. In pursuing those, he's also exercised fiscal restraint," said Joel Kaplan, deputy director of the White House budget office.
Critics say with nine months left in the government's budget year, there's plenty of time for more spending increases, such as for war costs. And they note this year's discretionary spending increase, though low, adds to boosts of 11% and then 15% in Bush's first two years as president.
"It's an administration that in principle is committed to controlling spending but is unwilling to make hard choices," said Maya MacGuineas, executive director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a bipartisan anti-deficit group.
The administration says most discretionary spending increases have been for defense and programs it considers anti-terror — the Homeland Security Department and other domestic security efforts.
Of the $209 billion three-year discretionary increase under Bush, which includes $20 billion Bush added for homeland security for 2001 right after the Sept. 11 attacks, the administration says $159 billion has been for defense and domestic security.
That means 76% of the increases have been for those programs.
During that same period, spending for all remaining discretionary programs has grown from $331 billion to $381 billion. That's 15%, or 5% a year.
"There clearly is a need for the Republican majority to sharpen its pencils and return to its foundation of discipline" in spending, said conservative Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
"There is room for more restraint, especially as the economy recovers, but this is hardly the record of a domestic-program spending spree," White House budget chief Joshua Bolten wrote last month in The Wall Street Journal.
They are liberals sheep herding the unwashed masses in FR.
And I have to say the solutions he and his lackey, Seatbelt Dole, here in NC offer, that all those laid off go back to school to become medical technicians is laughable. These are 40+ year old folks. Many don't have the high school education, let alone college education
That means your Friday nights should be busy these days.
Notice how this article lauds Clinton, and attacks Bush, and how conveniently limits itself to comparing Bush's spending to Clinton's, whose idea of reducing the size of the Federal government was to decimate our Armed Forces...Federal employees all.
Bush is a wartime president, spending increases are common place for wartime presidents. The charts here, drawn in constant dollars, paint an entirely different picture that what these so called "conservatives" are trying to shove down everyone's throats in FR.
They know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that most posters in here will never take the time to actually verify their claims.
Somebody ought to flip back through the calender a few years and inform Pence that the Taft Administration has left the building some time ago...
Your figures are before the massive spending in healthcare handouts (chart was developed on 6/13/03) and even if that weren't the case he had already spent more money than his father or Reagan. Of course, Reagan just had to win the Cold War.....I'd like to see that same chart this year
No, dealing with the smoky back rooms where political whores ply their trade is. Why on earth should anyone with any principles at all vote for the Republicrats? They have been given everything they asked for: both houses of congress and the presidency. What have they given in return? More deficits, 27% increase in discretionary spending and a brand new, greedy-geezer drug plan. Until people start voting their conscience, they will have politicians with no conscience.
The plans you are discussing were included.
Reagan had to win a Cold Warm, we are fighting a hot war, in constant dollars, Bush should spend $100 billion less than Reagan.
Would you say that your ideal president would cut down Federal spending, reduce the size of the Federal government, and take a tough stance on immigration?
What point would there be left to vote GOP if we lose this election to Dean and he appoints left wing judges? And if Bush wins but gives us the finger and appoints even "moderate" judges many conservatives will be gone for good.
Yes, and since Bush is not planning on doing any of that, I say the Republican party should nominate a conservative to run. Unless you're going to try to convince me that spending 400 billion over the next ten years and estimates upwards of 2 trillion in the second ten years on a boondoggle of a healthplan is somehow limiting government
And thank GOD we have an army of greedy-geezers armed with free prescription drugs ready to storm up any hill occupied by Al-Queda terrorists!
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.
