The party of big spending, big government

I met last week with David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. He noted that GOP leaders who say they believe in limited government and federalism have overseen the fastest growth in government spending since World War II and have moved to federalize state responsibilities on education, marriage and medical marijuana. Boaz appreciates recent GOP efforts to curb spending, but he notes that proposed cuts in pork projects don’t come close to covering the spending expected for Katrina recovery.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

4 Comments

  1. janabanana
    Posted October 23, 2005 at 8:46 am | Permalink

    Gee wiz! You mean the Republicans lied to get elected?I just don’t believe it!

  2. Joe Blow
    Posted October 23, 2005 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    How about TABOR for the Feds? Oh yeah, the Eagle is opposed to that idea. Vote for a casino…OK, taxes, no way. Intellectual consistency is not a hallmark of the Eagle editorial page.

  3. Brian
    Posted October 23, 2005 at 11:24 am | Permalink

    The federal government and perhaps even the state governments should never be tied to an irrevocable pledge of balanced budgets. Balanced budgets should be earnestly strived for, but they should not bind governments to no deficit spending when it is required. Deficit spending in times of severe recession or depression is now one of the standard tools for helping to mitigate the length and severity of these economic downturns. The federal government needs to be able to deficit spend in times of war or national emergency.

    I think, at least at the federal level, a line item budget veto would be a welcome change. Somehow coming up with a system where states are rewarded for minimizing their budgets might work. For example, in many US based institutions there is a push to overspend on current budgets as “proof” that they are too low so that more will be allocated in the next budget cycle. In Japan, however, the government and most large corporations do it differently. Money is budgeted, but if a department or organization comes in under budget, about 2/3 of the money is returned, but 1/3 or so is used as a reward or incentive to the organization or the individuals in the organization. This system has resulted in great efficiency improvements in the budget process and in happier employees who are rewarded for finding ways to makke the system operate more efficiently rather than less efficiently.

  4. Galahad
    Posted October 23, 2005 at 9:49 pm | Permalink

    Slowly, the real conservatives are waking up to the monster they created in BushCo.

    You did it, douchebags, now you live with it.