Big Government

From dKosopedia

Myth: Republicans oppose big government spending

Fact: Of the 369,000 Government employees added between 1962 and 2001, 84% were added under Republican administrations.

Fact Bush promised to veto any bill costing over 256 billion, but when Republican Congress passed the Transportation Bill, costing $284,000,000,000 he signed it.

Included in the bill:

$200,000,000 for a bridge in Alaska that would serve an island with 50 residents
$125,000,000 for a bridge in Anchorage, Alaska
$3,000,000 to renovate and expand the National Packard Museum and adjacent historic Packard facilities in Warren, Ohio

(Source: Citizens against Government Waste)

"Don Young (R-AK) helped secure nearly $1 billion in earmarks for his sparsely populated state and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) secured $700 million for the area in and around his home district of Bakersfield, California...It is only fitting, then, that the President signed this legislation in Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IL) district, because the Speaker secured the third highest amount of highway pork in the nation." -Taxpayers for Common Sense

Fact: Some more of the things the Republicans in Congress are spending your money on:

$2,000,000 for the First Tee golf program in St. Augustine, Fla.;
$1,800,000 for the Women's World Cup tournament;
$725,000 for the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia;
$325,000 for the construction of a swimming pool in Salinas, Calif.;
$220,000 for the New Mexico Retail Association in Albuquerque;
$270,000 for "sustainable olive production";
$400,000 for the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Ky.;
$315,000 for Formosan Subterranean Termite research;
$270,000 for potato storage in Madison, Wis.

Source: Boston Globe

Fact: "Federal spending has jumped to its highest level, per household, since World War II, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation. "The unfortunate truth is that the Bush administration, aided by a Republican Congress, has increased spending more in three years than the previous administration did in eight," said Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.

A $128 billion budget surplus when Bush moved into the White House is now a $375 billion deficit with few people optimistic that the federal budget will reach balance again."

Source

Fact: "Spending has mushroomed by 23.7%, the fastest pace in a decade…. overall federal expenditures have grown to an estimated $2.31 trillion for the budget year that started Oct. 1. That is up from $1.86 trillion in President Clinton's final year, a rate of growth not seen for any three-year period since (Bush Senior) 1989 to 1991...

What has vexed conservatives most is the 31.5% growth since Bush took office in discretionary spending....Such spending grew by an annual average of 3.4% during Clinton's eight years..."

Source: USA Today

Fact: You can watch how quickly Republicans are spending your money here:

Conclusion

Democrats support effective government, Republicans oppose effective government. One of the ways Republicans oppose effective government is by creating a large, inneffective government.

External Links

Taxpayers for Common Sense
Green Scissors -works to cut wasteful and environmentally harmful spending, subsidies, and tax breaks

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This page was last modified 02:27, 3 June 2006 by Arthur Smith. Based on work by dKosopedia user(s) PatriotismOverProfits. Content is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Big Government

Conclusion

See also

External Links