Re: Republicans: Spending like there's no tomorrow

steve <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> Weren't the Republicans crowing for years about fiscal responsibility? 
> 
> Yet the first time they get control of both houses of Congress in
> decades.......they spend the house out!!!

  The GOP gained control of both houses of Congress in 1995. They
temporarily lost the majority in the Seante for 18 months after the
Jeffords switch.
  The slowest rate of government growth (ie spending)in the past 15
years occurred from 1995-98. The "left" howled about "draconian
cuts"... as if a lower than demanded increase in a pet program was
somehow a "cut"

  After the mid term election debacle (when the GOP nearly lost the
House of representatives)in 1998, the GOP decided it was more
important to be re-elected than be fiscally responsible. After all
being fiscally responsible was not getting them re-elected.

  Since then (1998)the rate of spending increases has been anything
but "conservative"

                                                                  
T.Carr

> 
> 
> http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2003/11/11_505.html
> 
> Extract (partial): 
> 
> <....>
> 
> After 9/11, the GOP told the American people to expect higher spending on
> homeland defense. And, according, to the conservative Heritage Foundation,
> federal spending has grown 16 percent since 2001. In 2003, federal spending
> topped $20,000 per household for the first time since WWII (adjusted for
> inflation and put in 2003 dollars). But Heritage also points out that over
> half the new spending is unrelated to defense and the 9/11 attacks. Brian
> M. Riedl writes:
> 
>     "From 2001 through 2003, the federal budget expanded by $296 billion.
> New defense spending accounted for $100 billion of that amount, and other
> 9/11-induced spending on homeland security, international aid, and domestic
> rebuilding totaled $32 billion. That leaves $164 billion in new spending
> completely unrelated to defense and the 9/11 attacks?these unrelated
> expenditures were responsible for 55 percent of all new spending."
> 
> The budget, as a Goldman Sachs newsletter recently put it, is "out of
> control..............
> 
> <..................>