Federal spending per household is most since WWII

[Infinite Velocity]

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff, 12/4/2003

WASHINGTON -- Congress is set to end its session next week with a vote on an $820 billion appropriations bill, capping two years of record-level spending economists say has raised the per-household outlay to its highest since World War II.

Such programs as the No Child Left Behind education law have combined with wartime costs and a generous farm bill to increase government spending by 16 percent in the last two years, compared with an average of 3.5 percent a year during the 1990s. The recent passage of a $396 billion Medicare expansion and overhaul bill is expected to drive spending even higher in future years.

The Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups expressed concerns yesterday about the spending habits of a Republican Congress that had promised fiscal restraint. The foundation said this Congress's spending increases went well beyond outlays for defense and homeland security: Subtracting those, spending still went up 11 percent over the past two years.

"It's always easy to be generous with other people's money," said Brian M. Riedl, a Heritage Foundation economist who released a report yesterday on special interest, or "pork barrel," items in the upcoming omnibus spending package, which would fund seven appropriations bills for 2004.

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http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/12/04/federal_spending_per_household_is_most_since_wwii/

[kalian]

1. This so-called "war on terrorism"....

is just one huge pork barrel politics. Its the last gasp before the
economic infrastructure of this country collapses...and that's why
they're making out like bandits.