The Era of Big Government - Take Two
$3 Trillion Price Tag Left Out As Bush Details His Agenda
A staple of Bush's stump speech is his claim that his Democratic challenger, John F. Kerry, has proposed $2 trillion in long-term spending, a figure the Massachusetts senator's campaign calls exaggerated. But the cost of the new tax breaks and spending outlined by Bush at the GOP convention far eclipses that of the Kerry plan.Bush's pledge to make permanent his tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2010 or before, would reduce government revenue by about $1 trillion over 10 years, according to administration estimates. His proposed changes in Social Security to allow younger workers to invest part of their payroll taxes in stocks and bonds could cost the government $2 trillion over the coming decade, according to the calculations of independent domestic policy experts.
I've seen a lot of things in my day ... but seeing a Republican President propose a more costly agenda than the Democratic nominee now qualifies as a first. Fiscal responsibility is dead should Bush get re-elected. It'd be right there, six feet under, right alongside with conservatism.