Two notes of interest regarding the ongoing debate over federal spending. First, Rep. Ron Paul, nominally a Republican but in reality a Libertarian:

Congress reacted to Katrina in the expected irresponsible manner. It immediately appropriated over $60 billion with little planning or debate. As with all rapid government expenditures, the amount of waste and mismanagement will be staggering. Congress knows it won’t need to raise taxes to pay the bill, because the Federal Reserve will accommodate reckless deficit spending.

My simple suggestion to my colleagues is this: Find dollar-for-dollar offsets for all hurricane relief spending while public attention remains focused on the destruction in New Orleans. Once interest in Katrina fades, other spending priorities will reassert themselves and any sense that tax dollars are finite will be lost. Congressional spending habits, in combination with our flawed monetary system, could bring us a financial whirlwind that makes Katrina look like a minor storm.

While I think he is premature in relegating the Fed to being accomodative to poor fiscal policy, he is right on his other point. Second, is Brendan Miniter in the Wall Street Journal:

What President Bush, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other Republicans haven't figured out yet is that deficit spending isn't a problem for them unless it endangers the broader conservative agenda. If it does, it will become the electoral issue. And what we're seeing is that Katrina is swamping every goal conservatives have, from limiting government to cutting taxes to reforming entitlement programs. Katrina spending has already imperiled plans to repeal the death tax, and Congress is already $60 billion into a spending binge. Handing out $2,000 debit cards was just the beginning. The conservative Congress has brought back the welfare state...

As it happens, there is still an opportunity for Republicans in the ownership society. President Bush's idea of giving away federal land in the hard-hit areas is a step in the right direction, as are private $5,000 accounts that evacuees can use for job training and child care until they get back on their feet. A bolder step would be to move forward with private Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security accounts. Federal policies that encourage and facilitate owning assets--especially a home--enable individuals to get off of public assistance and will be embraced by even moderate voters.

Voices are rising against the GOP's spending binge. And it's a good thing, too. Because if we simply ignore it, it will prove to be our own undoing. If Republicans want to keep the Democrats out of power, they are going to have to stop acting like them.

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.gopbloggers.org/mt/majority.cgi/2081

---

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

What is the Vice-President's last name?

(NOTE: You must get this correct, otherwise, your comment will be rejected.)

Comments: (you may use HTML tags for style)