March 21, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

Congress loses control

What's going on in there?

Federal spending has increased by $600 billion since 2001, an increase of more than 33 percent. The federal government now spends almost $22,000 per household, the highest level since World War II. On top of this, Congress has failed to reform unsustainable government programs like Medicare and Social Security, leaving us with a real budget crisis.

Unfortunately, Congress seems to be hard at work to make the problem worse: last week, the Senate passed a budget resolution that actually increased spending more than the President originally proposed. In defense of this $7 billion increase, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said that “this vote is caused by the abject neglect for the last two years” for social programs like health and education.

According to a simple breakdown put together by Brian Riedl, Heritage’s Hermann Fellow, federal spending on health and education has ballooned over the past few years, growing by 57 percent and 137 percent, respectively, since 2001. In other words, spending on these social programs grew twice as fast—or more than twice as fast—than the budget overall, meaning that they occupy even bigger chunks of the budget than before.

So if this is “neglect,” what must overspending be like?

We must be doing something right

It really shows how Heritage gets under liberals’ skin when they feel the need to call our experts liars for telling the truth.

“So where does the notion of Bush the big spender come from?” arch-liberal New York Times columnist Paul Krugman asked yesterday (link for NYT subscribers only). “In a direct sense it comes largely from Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation, who issued a report last fall alleging that government spending was out of control.”

• MyHeritage.org Myth Buster: Most new spending is on defense

Krugman went on to say that Riedl's budget numbers are wrong and that spending on social programs isn’t really out of control. In fact, he says, Riedl uses these facts, numbers and statistics to give a “false impression” about reality. This reality, of course, boils down to the liberal canard that everything wrong with the budget can be traced to the tax cuts and defense spending.

Nevertheless, Krugman added that “Mr. Riedl is very good at his job.” And he kindly added that Riedl isn’t “literally lying” with his use of carefully fact-checked statistics and other data.

As Heritage’s Andrew Grossman notes, “It’s truly amazing what one can get away with on the op-ed page of a major newspaper ‘without literally lying’—leaving out the facts actually makes it pretty easy.” Grossman also points out a number of flaws with Krugman’s column, so read the whole rebuttal.

Secretary Chertoff: "I also want to thank Heritage for allowing us to shamelessly steal their ideas and some of their personnel in the course of setting up the Department."

Homeland Security “shamelessly stealing” ideas from Heritage

Secretary Michael Chertoff, speaking yesterday at The Heritage Foundation, said he is working to reform the Department of Homeland Security to better protect America—with more than a little help from Heritage.

Addressing a standing-room-only crowd in Heritage’s Lehrman Auditorium, Secretary Chertoff outlined his three goals for DHS: improve preparedness, solve the problem of illegal migration and protect critical infrastructure. And he credited “Heritage for allowing us to shamelessly steal their ideas and some of their personnel.”

Among the many Heritage proposals Secretary Chertoff said his department would adopt is the systems-based approach to border security, which Heritage’s James Carafano outlined in a paper last November.

• Read more about Secretary Chertoff’s talk on MyHeritage.org

Heritage gets results

The Department of Homeland Security may soon establish regional offices to coordinate disaster preparedness and response, domestic counterterrorism and intelligence gathering, CQ Homeland Security reported on Friday (link for subscribers only). This was one of five major reforms to DHS which Heritage’s James Carafano urged this January.

In other news

• Three years ago, the United States and its allies began the liberation of Iraq when they invaded the nation to overthrow brutal dictator Saddam Hussein. In a press conference Tuesday, President Bush said Iraq was not in a civil war, though he maintained that the coming months could still be tough.
• Special-interest lobbyists don’t believe proposed Congressional lobbying reforms will mean their influence will be diminished. In fact, The Washington Post reports, many see the new laws as only a nuisance. And it’s no wonder: with Congress spending like there’s no tomorrow, the special interests are vying for an essentially unlimited amount of money—so it’s a tremendous investment opportunity. Only by limiting federal spending can Congress truly diminish special interests’ influence.
• American intelligence officials are investigating ties between Iran’s radical new leadership and al Qaeda, The Los Angeles Times reports.
• “We are approaching full employment,” a job-market researcher told Reuters. This spring will be “the hottest job market for America's 1.4 million college graduates since the dot-com collapse in 2001,” the news service reported. So why is it liberals want the tax cuts to expire? So that investment in new jobs is discouraged?

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

• On Friday, March 24 at noon, author Kate O’Beirne will discuss her new book, Women Who Make the World Worse.
• On Monday, March 27 at 11:00 am, Heritage’s James Carafano will host three military manpower experts to discuss how America’s armed forces can avoid becoming a “hollow force” with a large number of soldiers but insufficient funding to maintain operations.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

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