Bush Speech to Congress Contains 11 More Initiatives Than Last Year
President proposes 31 new or expanded initiatives, Cato analysis finds
WASHINGTON— In his State of the Union address, President Bush proposed 11 more policy initiatives than he did last year, according to a Cato Institute analysis of the speech.
Tonight, the president outlined 31 new or expanded initiatives, up from 20 initiatives he proposed in last year's address to a joint session of Congress, and significantly fewer than the 104 initiatives proposed by President Clinton in his 2000 State of the Union address. Bush made his 31 proposals in 55 minutes—10 minutes less than last year. This is the sixth year the Cato Institute has tabulated the number of new initiatives proposed in State of the Union addresses. Cato Executive Vice President David Boaz offers the following additional analysis:
"President Bush reaffirmed his commitment to giving younger workers a better deal for their Social Security taxes and allowing all Americans to own real assets as their retirement security. I hope he will make that a key element of his reelection agenda.
"Unfortunately, his proposal for real retirement investments may be the only thing in his program that will reduce the long-term fiscal obligations facing the federal government. Once again, the president has called for fiscal restraint while presenting a laundry list of spending programs and recommending no spending cuts. It doesn't look like there's any real intention to cut back on the fastest spending pace since the Lyndon Johnson administration.
"President Bush declared that 'the American people are using their money far better than government would have'--but in fact his administration has taken 24 percent more of our money than the Clinton administration did. The most striking hypocrisy during the evening was members of Congress giving a standing ovation when Bush called for limiting federal spending and cutting wasteful spending. Congress and the president have cooperated to produce a 24 percent increase in spending in just three years. And the president praised Congress for 'great works of compassion' in creating a huge new prescription-drug entitlement--but it's not actually compassionate to spend other people's money.