The GOP's shame [View All]

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(San Diego) UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

The GOP's shame

Future generations to suffer for our red ink

September 19, 2005

The claim last week by one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress that there was no fat in the federal budget was so mind-boggling that conservative mega-pundit Rush Limbaugh, caught off guard, insisted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was being facetious. But the Texan wasn't kidding. He insisted to The Washington Times that "after 11 years of Republican majority we've pared down pretty good."

Say what? Since the GOP took over Congress in 1994, the supposed party of small government has presided over the largest expansion of federal spending since the New Deal – and, no, that doesn't count the post-9/11 spikes in military and homeland security spending. This binge has only accelerated with a Republican president.

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But when it comes to spending, years of Republican profligacy are going to take an enormous long-term toll on this country. No wonder the president blithely touts a $100 billion-plus rebuilding of New Orleans without outlining how to pay for it; his indifference to running up $1 trillion in total debt since 2001 shows it might as well be Monopoly money to him.

Given that America is on the verge of the retirement of tens of millions of baby boomers – a demographic transformation that will leave the nation with only about two workers for every citizen on the dole – this red-ink hemorrhage isn't just irresponsible. It amounts to civic arson. The result: By 2030, interest on the debt could cost as much as Social Security – even after it is swollen with boomers. That's crazy.

The national debt is not a sexy issue, but it must be confronted. Unfortunately, with irrationality and denial the norm in Washington and beyond, this doesn't seem likely – and so our children and their children will be suffering for our arson for generations to come.

There's a word for this: shameful.


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