[RJCogburn]

Sorry, Bushbots, but the writer is a conservative.....

To be sure, Bush's budgets have had to account for Sept. 11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But even when defense spending is excluded, discretionary spending has soared by nearly 21 percent in Bush's first three years. In Clinton's first triennium, nondefense discretionary spending declined slightly. If their budgets were all you had to go by, you might peg Bush for the Democrat and Clinton for the Republican.

Yes, I am more and more thinking about sitting out 04.

[Sandy]

the government will end the current fiscal year with a budget deficit of $455 billion. Over the next five years, the public debt is expected to rise by $1.9 trillion. The administration projects next year's federal outlays at $2.27 trillion, more than $400 billion higher than when the president took office.

Holy crap. I had no idea the numbers were this bad. I'm speechless.

[sandydipper]

I'm so sick of Government waste I could cry. Why doesn't someone just totally eliminate foreign aid and fire 4.5 million bureacrats?