Republican Fiscal Irresponsibility

November 20, 2003

Bush has out spent every president in the past 25 years; and this, after promises of a smaller government and a 4 percent annual cap on discretionary spending. It is apparent his campaign rhetoric was crafted to garner votes and deceive the American voter.

His empty promises now mean a bigger government that spends faster than ever. For example, discretionary spending grew 12.5 percent the past fiscal year and 27 percent in the past two fiscal years.

Our Republican Congress ignored Bush's spending cap and spent like no other in history. The last time we had such a spending frenzy was during Ronald Reagan's first term. He liked to spend lots of money too.

During the Clinton years discretionary spending averaged 2.4 percent a year. And Republicans call him fiscally irresponsible!

Certainly, military spending went up significantly, but non-military discretionary spending rose 8.7 percent. Even discounting military and homeland security costs, the budget rose 7.9 percent!

Remember, the annual average discretionary spending rate for Clinton was just 2.4 percent!

Bush and Congress used the "War on Terrorism" and Homeland Security as a cover so they could spend more money without restraint and little oversight.

What does the Administration talking heads say about this? Well, they admit discretionary spending has been out-of-control and promise to keep it to 4 percent for the new fiscal year, starting October 2003.

No apology for spending billions more than we can afford and no apology for lying to the American people.

There is no fiscal conservatism in the Republican controlled Whitehouse or Congress. The Bush Administration is probably the least fiscally responsible one in American history. A close second would be the Reagan Administration. Republicans must stopping using fiscal responsibility or conservatism as campaign slogans.

And what happened to the veto? So far, Bush has not vetoed any spending program and our national debt is now enormous and historical. Shame!

Oh, yeah,

Bush needs to call Bill Clinton and appoint him Budget Director. We need some fiscal sanity again!