Liberals revert to tax-and-spend
November 16, 2007| By Nathaniel Ward
Liberals swept into office in January making promises get the nation’s fiscal house in order. Instead, Heritage expert Brian Riedl writes, “the Democratic Congress has reverted to traditional tax-and-spend budgets.”
“They have repeatedly passed legislation that hikes spending, raises taxes, and increases the budget deficit,” Riedl continues. “They have also watered down promised ethics reforms and have brought back earmarks with a vengeance.” (One estimate suggests there are 8,000 earmarks in Congress’ proposed 2008 budget.)
But there has been a positive change in policy at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Over the past several months, President Bush has exercised welcome fiscal restraint, principally by vetoing wasteful and bloated spending bills.
“Due mostly to excessive spending, President Bush has threatened to veto nine of the 12 appropriations bills that have passed the House and six of the seven bills that have passed the Senate,” Riedl explains. This is good news after seven years of reckless spending.
Yet liberals, Riedl continues, aren’t unsatisfied with the massive spending increases that have come about on President Bush’s watch. So they are offering up bogus “claims that education and health programs need large increases to replenish past cuts.” In fact, spending in these areas, not counting entitlements, was not cut at all but “has increased 8.4 percent annually under President Bush—a rate significantly faster than under President Clinton.” In other words, the massive spending hikes on domestic programs since 2001 weren’t enough to satisfy the left.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
