US spending surges to historic level
So how does a tax cut plus historic spending and a huge rise in governmental red tape look for the future? Can you say voodoo economics? I knew you could. here we go again
Vote on gargantuan bill in Congress caps a year of stunning growth in government. WASHINGTON – President Bush and the Republican-led Congress are spending money at a rate not seen since World War II - and America's expanding war on terrorism isn't the main reason.
Spending for national security, it is true, has surged due to the military effort in Iraq and stepped-up homeland security.
But judging by a bill that Congress is taking up Monday, the lasting fiscal legacy of the Bush administration will also include a historic rise in domestic spending that could affect everything from consumer interest rates to a fiscal landscape that could force epic tax increases in future.
The spending growth is punctuated this week by a single vote in the House that wraps in all the spending leftovers - not all the money for troops, not the big Medicare expansion - and totals $820 billion. That's as big as the annual economic output of Sweden and Spain combined.
Behind the shift are several factors, notably the Republican Party's changing strategy and the lapsing of self-imposed fiscal restraints in Congress since Mr. Bush took office.