Spend-and-Spend Republicans Mire Government in Deficit Spending

Washington Post

As Congress rushes to conclude its 2003 session, Republican leaders are trying to garner votes for controversial legislation by loading the bills with billions of dollars in added costs that analysts said would expand the budget deficit for years to come. The year-end binge has alarmed analysts in Washington and on Wall Street, coming as it does after three years of presidential and congressional initiatives that have both substantially boosted government spending and shrunk its tax base.

"The U.S. budget is out of control," the Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs & Co. warned Friday in its weekly newsletter to clients.

Financial responsibility means living within means. Out-of-control budgets need spending cuts and revenue increases. The GOP in power demonstrates neither of these traits.

The spending frenzy in the energy and Medicare bills is an egregious attempt to buy the Presidency for a second term on the backs of our children. Both bills are meant to be crowning jewels in Bush's campaign, and so his supporters have opened up an all-you-can-eat pork buffet to get the bills passed. Democrats who have picked up their gold-encrusted plate should understand that they are handing this country to the Republicans.