Posted on 08/14/2005 9:18:13 AM PDT by Past Your Eyes
DEMOCRATIC National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, in Concord for a fundraiser on Wednesday, accused the Republican Party of being the party of fiscal irresponsibility. He has said that before, but this time the timing could not have been better. It was a day after President Bush signed a $286 billion transportation bill that was $30 billion higher than the amount he had pledged to veto.
"This bill is by far the most expensive, wasteful highway bill in the nation's history," Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, told The Washington Times. "It is filled to the brim with 6,371 projects at a cost of $24 billion for almost every congressional district in the country."
Between the House and Senate, the transportation bill received only 12 "no" votes.
"President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson," Stephen Slivinski, the libertarian Cato Institute's director of budget studies, wrote this past May — before the spending and energy bills passed. "Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending President in 30 years."
President Bush's signing of an atrocious transportation bill he had said he would veto leaves no doubt where he stands on federal spending. He's for it. Whatever claims Republicans might have had to being financially responsible have been shattered under the weight of the spending bills they have passed and President Bush has signed.
"You know what we need in this country," Dean asked on Wednesday? "Individual liberty and personal responsibility. The Republicans used to be the party of individual liberty and personal responsibility."
Thanks to President Bush and his overspending buddies in Congress, Dean can admit his party's reckless past and suffer no political consequences. While Republicans are laying claim to Lyndon Johnson's legacy, Howard Dean is squirming out from under it. To be sure, the Democrats still want to load the federal government with new social programs and additional spending. But now that Republicans do too, Democrats can claim with a straight face that they will do it more responsibly.
"It looks as if the Union Leader really is conservative they'll have to endorse the Democrats," Dean joked, before adding that he is not sure he would want our endorsement.
Well, governor, you don't have to worry about getting our endorsement. Some Republicans, however, do.
Are you holding your breath waiting for that to happen?
what is amazing is the author quotes that with out any skepticism at all...problem is Bush is probably the weakest Domestic president Ive ever seen
I'm all for a smaller government, less spending and no new taxes but I (and the country) are not insane enough to think that Dean would deliver any of that.
"You know what we need in this country," Dean asked on Wednesday? "Individual liberty and personal responsibility."
Dean, of course, knows nothing of these things...if he did, he'd switch parties and not be such a clown.
This wouldn't have anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security would it? Maybe the Feds shouldn't have taken over airport security, but if you want to say President Bush has increased government spending and the size of government, at least admit where those increases are.
problem is that is probably the weakest statement I've seen on FR in a long time. President Bush has gotten virtually everything he wants domestically so far. Ever heard of the Energy bill, Transportation bill, CAFTA, Tax cuts, tort reform, etc. Maybe President Bush is the first president you've ever seen. Can you name anything besides NAFTA and welfare reform that Clinton got done domestically?
"This wouldn't have anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security would it? Maybe the Feds shouldn't have taken over airport security, but if you want to say President Bush has increased government spending and the size of government, at least admit where those increases are."
"Bush signs bill creating electronic prescription monitoring "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1462775/posts
Electronic prescription monitoring has nothing to do with Homeland Security
Congress has no fear of Bush. His not vetoing any legislation has led congress to think they can get whatever they want
Those weren't even Clinton's ideas
President Bush's veto is a phone call to Tom Delay and Bill Frist. If he started vetoing legislation we would know the GOP has come apart.
You are either naive or not well read.
Take military spending and Homeland Security spending out of the picture. Let me give you a few seconds to do that and clear your mind ................
Tic tic tic ..........
You ready?
Now hear this--George Bush is a fiscal socialist. He has out LBJ'd LBJ.
My suggestion to you is to go tho the Office of Managment and Budget website and look up the historical tables. Crunch some numbers and get the percentages spent, list increases over the previous year and other data. Compare Bush to Clinton, Carter, LBJ and others.
You will discover that George Bush is a socialist of galactic proportions. Replace your emotion and opinion with FACTS. Then things will clear up for you.
We were discussing the Federal Interstate System that President Eisenhower had built just the other day. I can not imagine what it would be like today if it had not been designed and development started in the 60's.
I believe we need transportation corridors from coast to coast and North to South. I'm a Deputy Sheriff with 30 miles of Interstate 24 running through my county. I sometimes count the trucks that pass in a period of time and it is unbelievable how many travel through per hour. I believe their separation from passenger vehicles would greatly increase road safety.
On another note I think it is a shame we have allowed the railroad systems in the U.S. to deteriorate. I think the piggyback system is under utilized and that an updated rail system would be much more economical and faster than trucking alone. Long distance terminal to terminal container shipment would be much better by rail in my opinion.
"This wouldn't have anything to do with the Department of Homeland Security would it? Maybe the Feds shouldn't have taken over airport security, but if you want to say President Bush has increased government spending and the size of government, at least admit where those increases are."
Also....a prescription drug entitlement has NOTHING to do with the Dept of Homeland Security.
50% more funding than clinton ever gave, for our socialist education system has NOTHING to do with Homeland Security.
We all know that Dean is a whackjob, of course. However, there's no denying that Bush hasn't vetoed a single bill. Even excluding Homeland Security and military spending, he's still allowed the biggest increase in federal spending since fellow Texan LBJ.
Dean is trying to demoralize rank-and-file conservatives, hoping that they'll stay home in 2006.
you sound like a raving lunatic:
Did you vote for Bush in 2000? Because he ran on the Drug Benefit then. Were you wawre of that?
Federal Spending as a % of GDP has gone up under Bush but it is lower than it was under GHW Bush in 1992. Federal SPending was 18% in 2000, today it is 21% and that included all federal spending, not just domestic.
Most of that is due ot increased spoending, but some is due to a slow eoconmy from 2001-03. For federal spending not to have risen in those years as a % of GDP, spenind would have had to be flat, including defense.
When you say that Bush is a socialist, that identifies you as a meneber of the far right fringe, that no one listens to.
-"You know what we need in this country," Dean asked on Wednesday?-
#1, did they really put a question mark there, and #2, what we need is fewer politicians.
-"You know what we need in this country," Dean asked on Wednesday?-
#1, did they really put a question mark there, and #2, what we need is fewer politicians.
I could not agree with you more, EEE. Good post.
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