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The Vital Need for Spending Restraint in the Second Bush Termby
John Berthoud Jan 26, 2005 On Tuesday,
the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued somber new deficit projections. And
not surprisingly, many big spenders in Congress are blaming President Bush's
tax cuts.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has opined, "rather than addressing the
problem, the President will deepen it by proposing a budget next month that
seeks to add another $1.8 trillion in debt by extending huge tax cuts for
the wealthiest Americans."
However,
the efforts to link tax relief to the nation's deficits ignore one small
thing: the facts. The reality is that current federal deficits have
not been caused by Americans being under-taxed. Instead, a review of
the numbers shows that even just very modest spending restraint over the
past half dozen years would have meant no deficit problem.
If the federal government had merely limited total spending growth over
the past six years to 3.2% annually, CBO would today be projecting a small
surplus for Fiscal Year 2005 (which runs from October 1, 2004 through September
30, 2005), instead of a $368 billion deficit.
And make
no mistake – the spending explosion can't even be blamed on defense
or homeland security. Almost every cabinet department has seen a big
spending run-up. For instance, just between 1999 and 2004, spending
at the Department of Commerce rose by 23 percent, spending at the Department
of Agriculture rose by 24 percent, and spending at the Department of Labor
rose by 82 percent.
It's
long past time for President Bush and Congress to get serious about Washington's
spending addiction.
John Berthoud is President of the 350,000-member National Taxpayers Union. |
