zimv20
Sep 15, 2006, 08:55 PM
bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=a5zS1ZWR__O4)
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Republican voters are angry, not for the first time, at big-spending politicians in Washington. This year, their wrath is aimed at their own party.
The Republican-controlled Congress heads into the Nov. 7 elections having increased federal spending this year by 9 percent -- the most since 1990 -- to about $2.7 trillion, according to projections from the White House Office of Management and Budget. The agency estimates government spending will grow to 20.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2006 from 18.5 percent when President George W. Bush took office in 2001.
``We've strayed a long way from the principles the party was founded upon,'' said Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican.
[...]
Most of the extra discretionary spending, the lawmakers say, went to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, homeland security and the Hurricane Katrina clean-up.
OMB data show that non-security discretionary spending, excluding emergency funding measures, has increased every year since 2002: by 6 percent that year, 5.7 percent the next, 4.3 percent in 2004, and 2.8 percent last year. This year, it is projected to increase by 0.5 percent.
Republican lawmakers say they are confident their constituents will stick with them because the Democrats are even less committed to restraint.
[...]
While government data show the budget deficit will narrow to $296 billion this year, the smallest since 2002, OMB says that is largely because of an unanticipated increase in tax revenue that isn't likely to recur next year. And lawmakers so far haven't made sizable cuts in next year's spending plans.
[...]
Between 1996 and 2001, when Democratic President Bill Clinton was in the White House and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress, government spending declined from 20.3 percent of gross domestic product to 18.5 percent.
so bush and the GOP congress just undid everything that clinton and the GOP congress did to reduce federal spending.
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Republican voters are angry, not for the first time, at big-spending politicians in Washington. This year, their wrath is aimed at their own party.
The Republican-controlled Congress heads into the Nov. 7 elections having increased federal spending this year by 9 percent -- the most since 1990 -- to about $2.7 trillion, according to projections from the White House Office of Management and Budget. The agency estimates government spending will grow to 20.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2006 from 18.5 percent when President George W. Bush took office in 2001.
``We've strayed a long way from the principles the party was founded upon,'' said Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican.
[...]
Most of the extra discretionary spending, the lawmakers say, went to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, homeland security and the Hurricane Katrina clean-up.
OMB data show that non-security discretionary spending, excluding emergency funding measures, has increased every year since 2002: by 6 percent that year, 5.7 percent the next, 4.3 percent in 2004, and 2.8 percent last year. This year, it is projected to increase by 0.5 percent.
Republican lawmakers say they are confident their constituents will stick with them because the Democrats are even less committed to restraint.
[...]
While government data show the budget deficit will narrow to $296 billion this year, the smallest since 2002, OMB says that is largely because of an unanticipated increase in tax revenue that isn't likely to recur next year. And lawmakers so far haven't made sizable cuts in next year's spending plans.
[...]
Between 1996 and 2001, when Democratic President Bill Clinton was in the White House and Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress, government spending declined from 20.3 percent of gross domestic product to 18.5 percent.
so bush and the GOP congress just undid everything that clinton and the GOP congress did to reduce federal spending.
