Conservatives Dispute GOP Budget Claims

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30791-2003Dec25.html

After three straight years of double-digit increases in federal spending, President Bush and the Republican Congress say they have the situation under control. But a number of conservatives say actual spending this year will be triple the figures cited by the White House.

The two camps have simply chosen different kinds of budget numbers to bolster their positions. Bush enumerates the amount of spending that Congress authorizes each year. His critics cite the actual amount the government is spending. In effect, the president and his allies are counting the money put into the spending pipeline, while the others count the amount flowing out the other side, some of which may have been slowly trickling through for years.

The debate over federal spending has become politically charged, with both sides tossing out wildly divergent numbers. On Dec. 15, Bush said at a news conference that his administration and the GOP-controlled Congress had held spending not related to the military or homeland security to a 6 percent increase in fiscal year 2002, with a 5 percent increase last fiscal year and a 3 percent increase for the 2004 fiscal year, which began Oct. 1.

"We're working with Congress to hold the line on spending," Bush said.

Tad DeHaven, a budget researcher at the libertarian Cato Institute, published his version of the numbers a few days later. He found a 6.8 percent increase in the same categories in 2002, an 8.3 percent increase last fiscal year and a 6.3 percent increase this year -- more than double Bush's 2004 number.

[Kolesar]

1. ...higher inflation, rising interest rates and a falling dollar

Gaze into the crystal ball...er...into the abyss

Wall Street also is raising doubts about the White House's budget optimism. Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo & Co. and a noted economic optimist, warned clients that week, "The budget deficit could lead to sharply higher inflation, rising interest rates and a falling dollar unless measures are taken to restrain them."

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Could Lead To These Events????

There's no "could" about it. It will lead to those, just like it did in 1969, 1976, 1987, and already in 2001.

Deficits are an economic drag, and why anyone would suggest that they "could be" such is preposterous. These things WILL happen, not might happen.
The Professor

[snippy]

2. Spending has gone down if you do not count the increased spending.

Bush probably is surprised and a little angry that some conservatives are not beleving this particular lie.

[mbperrin]

4. Damn! What a concept to figure spending - looking at

ACTUAL spending???!!!

Nah, this can't be right, doesn't fit in the fantasy world of *Bush economics!