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September 13, 2005
Pork Barrel Spending - Where We Are and Who is to Blame
The Tomah Journal from LaCrosse Wisconsin points out some of the outrageous spending and pork barrel projects from the last couple of years here.
.Big-government conservatism isn't just limited to DHS. The July issue of Harper's Magazine reported how Congress has streamlined the process by which members of Congress insert spending items into appropriation bills. The article obliterated the fiction that Republicans are only as corrupt as Democrats who ran Congress until 1995. In 1980, for example, Congress inserted just 62 defense department "earmarks" Last year, it was 2,671. The number of earmarks tripled from $10.6 billion in 1998 to $32.7 in 2004. Harper's calls it "The Great American Pork Barrel -- Washington streamlines the means of corruption," and it's not happening with on the Democrats' watch.
Still don't believe big-government conservatism exists? Compare spending patterns of the Clinton and Bush years. Under Clinton, federal spending went up 13.3 percent over eight years. Bush needed just four years to jack up spending by 19.7 percent. The difference isn't defense spending. Clinton raised non-defense discretionary spending by 15.1 percent in eight years. Under four years of Bush, it's up 25.3 percent
If any of my Republican friends complain about tax and spend Democrats and liberals I will probably throw up.
Posted by Chip Spear at September 13, 2005 8:01 AM