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01/23/2004 Archived Entry: "Bush's $5 trillion problem: Rising deficit troubles GOP"

Posted by steve @ 04:29 AM EST [Link]

A TRILLION HERE...A TRILLION THERE: And pretty soon you're talking about real money. The Christian Science Monitor reports today that Republicans are getting ready for a battle over the budget. With their own president.

Although Dubya promised to keep growth in non-discretionary spending below 4 per cent in his State of the Union speech earlier this week, plenty of GOPers are worried about how much money is being spent by the president on all his pet projects.

Many Republicans worry that tax cuts without significant spending cuts cannot be sustained. Moreover, they note that much of the increase has been in nondefense discretionary spending. The conservative Club for Growth estimates that the Bush administration has increased domestic discretionary spending by 8.2 percent, compared with 2.5 percent during the Clinton years.

In response to such concerns, the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of some 90 GOP conservatives, this week called for zero net growth in spending for the 2005 fiscal year and urged the president to find offsets for any new spending.

Hard to argue with anyone who thinks Bush is spending like a poet in a bar on payday.

Read on.