President Putting 'Big' Back in Government: "Even as President Bush proposes significant cuts in healthcare, farm subsidies and other domestic programs, his new budget makes one thing clear about the legacy of his first term in the White House: The era of big government is back.
Bush's $2.57-trillion budget for 2006, if approved by Congress, would be more than a third bigger than the 2001 budget he inherited four years ago. It is a monument to how much Republicans' guiding fiscal philosophy has changed over the 10 years since the GOP's Contract With America called for a balanced budget and abolition of entire Cabinet agencies."[--snip--]
Much of the deficit growth during Bush's first term was the result of four rounds of tax cuts and increases in defense and domestic security programs after the Sept. 11 attacks. Bush and fellow Republicans have argued for the last three years that eliminating the deficit had to take a back seat in the budget because the country was at war and the economy was sagging. Now that the economy has improved and Iraq has elected its own government, the pressure is on Bush to combat the deficit.
However, Bush's budget projections likely understate future deficits as they do not include the full costs of three priorities at the core of what he seeks as his second-term legacy: ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, making his 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, and overhauling Social Security. [--snip--]
That is a far cry from the rhetoric Republicans used in 1995, when their government-slashing fervor was exemplified by former Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), the House Appropriations Committee chairman who brought a machete to his first panel meeting to dramatize his commitment to cutting programs. That year, the Republican-controlled Congress abolished 270 programs. They cut discretionary spending by $12 billion — the only year since Republicans took control of Congress that spending did not grow. [--snip--]
"President Bush would never admit this, but he has transformed the party into the party of permanent big deficits," he said.
Maybe Il Ducetto was worried that everyone would think his budgie (is that what they call it in Texas?) was smaller than Clinton's.
