"The Republican Congress is spending at twice the rate as under Bill Clinton and President Bush has yet to issue a single veto," said Paul Weyrich, the chairman of one group, Coalitions for America.
...New figures next month are expected to project a deficit of $480 billion (£260 billion) in 2004.
A huge surplus was predicted when Mr Bush took office three years ago but the White house blames the swing on the cost of fighting the war against terrorism. article
A little interesting side note from ex-treasurer Paul O'Neill's story is that the first thing the Bush administration wanted to do when they took over from the Clinton administration was to use the surplus for tax credits. Of course there is always the matter of a huge debt that could be paid down, but there's way too much funny business in finance for me grasp the fine points of debt when you're talking about trillions of dollars and budgeting for an entire nation. O'Neill claims that he and Greenspan wanted to use the surplus to fix Social Security, but that had been a Clinton idea as well, so you know that wasn't going to fly. I don't understand the federal budget stuff at all, but I believe there is some provision which says the government can't hold a surplus, since that's the taxpayers' money. (Somebody educate me.) If true, and it sounds reasonable (like anything has to be reasonable, but hey), then getting it back into the pockets of the corporate elite could really only come a few ways that I can see: tax credits, environmental deregulation, and war.
At any rate, it looks like some Republicans are beginning to stand up to reclaim their party. I hope it's not too late.
The Right's fury has been compounded by the details of a vast spending bill laden with an array of "pork barrel" projects shocking even by the blatant vote-buying standards of congressional politics.
The omnibus appropriations bill for 2004 was blocked by Democrats with some Republican support last year but was expected to be passed last night in good time for the campaigns for November's congressional elections.
"Members of Congress used to be ashamed about pork projects. They are now proud about bringing home the bacon. They see it as their job," said Brian Riedl, a budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think-tank.
"Republicans are dedicated to staying in power. The quest for re-election dominates all else. There are more than 8,000 pork projects in this bill, the most of any in the history of Congress."
Mr Bush's administration says the bill increases expenditure by only three per cent and in his State of the Union address he said the 2005 budget would keep the rise to four per cent.
But the Heritage Foundation disputes the figures for this year, calculating that the increase is nearer to nine per cent and concluding that the past few years appear to have been the fastest-growing period of government spending since the 1960s.
And the Heritage Foundation ain't librul.
That business about being proud to "bring home the bacon" these days is the telling line of our culture in the 21st century. It's a whole new world out there. The game is on. And the winner is the one who dies with the most toys. Power belongs to the man with the money. If you've been awake during the past decade at least, you can't help but have noticed that the power brokers, the top players in the game, no longer bother much with trying to fool you, because they know that you are powerless. You are essentially invisible. All that's needed from you is your tax money and your labor. They're playing the game over your head. According to something I read recently, 40 senators are millionaires (I expect that's "multi-millionaires"). The others aren't getting by hand to mouth. Their interests are simply not the same as yours.
courtesy POAC
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
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