Government Outgrows Cap Set by President

[kskiska]

Discretionary Spending Rose 12.5% Last Year

Wednesday, November 12, 2003; Page A01

Confounding President Bush's pledges to rein in government growth, federal discretionary spending expanded by 12.5 percent in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, capping a two-year bulge that saw the government grow by more than 27 percent, according to preliminary spending figures from congressional budget panels.

The sudden rise in spending subject to Congress's annual discretion stands in marked contrast to the 1990s, when such discretionary spending rose an average of 2.4 percent a year. Not since 1980 and 1981 has federal spending risen at a similar clip. Before those two years, spending increases of this magnitude occurred at the height of the Vietnam War, 1966 to 1968.

The preliminary spending figures for 2003 also raise questions about the government's long-term fiscal health. Bush administration officials have said fiscal restraint and "pro-growth" tax cuts should put the government on a path to a balanced budget. Bush has demanded that spending that is subject to Congress's annual discretion be capped at 4 percent.

But the Republican-led Congress has not obliged. The federal government spent nearly $826 billion in fiscal 2003, an increase of $91.5 billion over 2002, said G. William Hoagland, a senior budget and economic aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). Military spending shot up nearly 17 percent, to $407.3 billion, but nonmilitary discretionary spending also far outpaced Bush's limit, rising 8.7 percent, to $418.6 billion.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28252-2003Nov11.html

[bvar22]

1. This BELONGS solely to the republicans.

The REPUBLICANS GREW GOVERNMENT by 27%.


Conversely, the two presidents who grew government the least (since WWII) were Carter and Clinton.

[moondust]

2. Government Obesity Party (GOP).

"Not since 1980 and 1981 has federal spending risen at a similar clip."

Welcome to the Reagan Reprise! Failure is more miserable the second time around!

[Enjolras]

3. New political terminology?

Tax-cut and spend Republican!!

I'm having some trouble paying all of my bills, too. They keep rising. Maybe I should ask my employer for a pay cut? I don't really understand how that translates to more income rather than less, but we should trust our president. After all, he has an MBA from Harvard. It must be so.

Not to change the subject, but again I'm left to wonder how this guy manages to sell himself to the working class as an anti-elitist, "man of the people", while at the same time demeaning the very Ivy League establishments that produced him as liberal, elitist academia.

[onehandle]

4. Graphic: Bush's GOP at the trough...

This is the party of "fiscal responsibility"?

[underpants]

5. Let's keep in mind that the latest $87Billion for Iraq is in FY2004

He didn't sign it until October so that money is not inlcuded here. It will be in this fical year.