Does anyone really believe that Republicans are better keepers of the nation’s finances than democrats?
From NY Times: House and Senate also gave final approval to a $286.4 billion highway measure stuffed with special projects for virtually every Congressional district in the nation.
The House adopted the highway measure on Friday morning by 412 to 8; the Senate agreed to it later in the day by 91 to 4. The bill had been delayed for years by disputes between the administration and Congress over the level of spending and fights over the formula for distributing money among the states. Its authors said the bill would help to ease traffic congestion around the country, improve safety, provide thousands of jobs and strengthen the economy.
Critics in both the House and Senate as well as watchdog groups criticized the measure for its price tag and the wide variety of special projects - nearly 6,000 by one count - including multimillion-dollar highways and bridges, museums and recreational trails, and even transportation improvements at the Bronx Zoo.
Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is a frequent critic of such spending, spent almost 30 minutes on the Senate floor, singling out dozens of projects for ridicule, including $2.2 million to make landscape improvements to the Ronald Reagan freeway in California.
“I wonder what Ronald Reagan would say,” Mr. McCain said, noting that the late president was a critic of such Congressional largesse.
Yeah, very disappointing show by Republicans. I remember back in 94 when the Republicans were the party of smaller government. It seems so long ago now that I can’t remember if there were still dinosaurs around then or not.
The problem is that the Democrats provide no competition in this area. Every bill that comes through they scream about because it doesn’t spend enough money.
It is irresistable for Republicans to act like Democrat lites and move toward fiscal irresponsibility.
We really need the Democrats to get their act together. We need a two party system. Absent serious competition, Republicans can be every bit as arrogent and irresponsible as the Democrats of the early 90s.
It was a trade: “I will sign a highway bill for all y’all’s states if you sign away the U.S.'s rights to tarriff inferior goods from Central America” said the Shrub.
I am convinced that when it comes to pork, neither party has any reason to claim being “better” than the other…witness the fact that the bills passed overwhelmingly in both houses. I would love to see the names who voted against them…probably weren’t able to secure any big projects for their states…
So I assume you absolutely despised that great globalizer Bill Clinton, who pushed NAFTA and free trade pretty much his entire presidency (and one of the things I personally think he did right)?
the ballsiest item in the entire thing was a bridge in alaska to be named after don young–the chairman of the house transportation and infrastructure committee. i mean, how in the world can you do that with any sort of straight face?
Hey, if the Rock and Roll HOF, Baseball HOF and the International Paper Museum can get money in a time of record deficit, you know it’s out of control. Like baseball really needs another handout from the government…
I like it when the Govt spend the money that I send them every year…most often it is to pay americans to do stuff…and blow shit up 4000 miles away…either way, I am all for it…what should they spend it on…idiots to plant bushes on a road…or to the same idiots to suck welfare cheese?
I would agree that Democrats and Republicans are to blame for spending. That being said, when you have a split presidency/congress, less money gets spent. There is something to be said about gridlock.
IO dont think they pretend to be fiscally responsible anymore. They have all the power and they can do whatever they want. For the record, I would agree politically with the financially responsible republican party, not the current one.
"The reason to single out Republicans is that they pretend to be the party of fiscal responsibility. The Democrats don’t even bother to pretend. "