New Spending Bill Angers Conservatives

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government-wide $397.4 billion spending bill that President Bush will sign in coming days marks the first time in a half-century such legislation was written with Republicans controlling the White House and Congress.

So what kind of measure did the GOP write? One that infuriated many conservatives, and won the votes of three of every four House Democrats and three of five Senate Democrats, including liberals like Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Tom Harkin of Iowa.

The bill little resembles what Democrats would write if they held the majority. They said it shortchanged schools, land conservation, border security and aid to police and other local emergency workers. And it opens the door for logging in many national forests, while continuing GOP bans on federal aid for abortion and providing a generous increase for sexual abstinence education.

Yet the measure is a far cry from the budgets Republicans wrote when they took undisputed control of Congress in 1995 for the first time in decades. Those Republicans proposed eliminating entire Cabinet-level agencies such as the Departments of Education, Commerce and Energy, only to be driven back by President Clinton.

"Republicans are beginning to speak like Democrats," said Keith Ashdown, spokesman for the conservative Taxpayers for Common Sense. "The cadre of fiscally responsible lawmakers is getting smaller every day."

This week's bill, covering the budget year that began Oct. 1, had its share of cuts. But it also gave the Education Department 6 percent more than Bush proposed, for a total of $53.4 billion; had big increases for highways, farmers and medical research; carried billions of dollars worth of home-district projects for lawmakers; and gave modest boosts to a wide range of programs.

In some cases the measure provides more than what Bush has proposed for next year. For education, which Bush has long highlighted, his 2004 budget seeks $53.1 billion - $300 million less than the amount he is about to sign into law for this year.

Lawmakers expect the White House to soon seek billions more for a war with Iraq if there is one, plus anti-terrorism efforts and other programs. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said he expects a $20 billion package. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., said he expects a wartime request for aid for U.S. allies Turkey and Jordan alone to be "big - billions of dollars."

The surge comes with Republicans having sole control of the federal spending process for the first time since 1954, under President Eisenhower. The GOP held the White House and Congress in early 2001, but Vermont Sen. James Jeffords left the party that spring and gave Democrats Senate control before spending bills were written.

It also comes despite frequent demands from Bush and his budget chief, Mitchell Daniels, that Congress curb spending.

In a Feb. 11 letter, Daniels warned that "the president's senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill" if it exceeded $385.9 billion. Yet the administration itself added $10 billion for defense, money it initially requested a year ago.

Analysts attribute the growing spending to the need to fight terrorism, the effort by Bush and some Republicans to cast themselves as compassionate conservatives and the lack of any sign the public cares much about huge federal deficits.

With such political dynamics in play, lawmakers crammed the bill with thousands of projects for their home districts and states.

_Nevada's senators, Democrat Harry Reid and Republican John Ensign, sharing credit for nearly $300 million in projects for their state. It includes $1 million for a hydrogen filling station at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and $600,000 for an oral history of the Nevada Test Site, a remote area where nuclear weapons have been tested for four decades.

_Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., said he won $164 million for his home state, including $300,000 for research by the Minnesota Cultivated Wild Rice Council.

_Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., said his state would receive $560,000 for the Montana Sheep Institute.

_Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., the No. 3 House GOP leader, won $250,000 to restore the Gillioz Theater in Springfield, Mo.

Not to mention the $90,000 that Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, took credit for winning to create a bilingual audio tour for the cowgirl museum in Fort Worth, where she was once mayor.

I have been posting here from years & I have told this group that no matter what the % of pubbies are there will ALWAYS be an excuse to why our congress will spend more of your money. Now we are seeing just what this "Two-Party Cartel" really is - a group of elitists - and an oligarthy. Did you hear from GW ONE PROGRAM CUT in his speech last month?

This is the biggest disappointment so far in this administration. The lack of 'fiscal' conservativism while promoting 'social' conservatism, is very disheartening.

Why did we give the Repubs dominance? It was for fiscal responsibility, not to get all warm and fuzzy hearing Bush refer to God now and then in his speeches. That doesn't effect my pocketbook, and as a capitalist that is what voted for these people for.

The Repub Party is doing great damage to themselves here, they had better wake up or they are going to be very surprised. Sometimes, when I consider things like this budget, I think it is too late for this country.

Now we are seeing just what this "Two-Party Cartel" really is - a group of elitists - and an oligarthy.

What's an "oligarthy"? I can't find it in my dictionary.

Don't be fooled by the president's social conservatism; most of that is just rhetoric to keep the Indians on the reservation. GW Bush is sort of a big government anti-libertarian.

Don't be fooled by the president's social conservatism; most of that is just rhetoric to keep the Indians on the reservation. GW Bush is sort of a big government anti-libertarian.

While for the most part I have to sadly agree, I have an old maxim that I have long asserted:

There is nothing so dangerous as a man who is doing what he fully believes in. And, Dubya, I believe, Believes.

Man it ticks me off to hear about how our government wastes our tax dollars. I am getting sick of the Republicans. I think I may vote third party next election. If this country goes to perdition I will not participate in the political parties that are taking it there.

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