Some of you may have noticed this page has been rather quite for the last couple of days while I’ve been working on a few things behind the scenes. Anyway let’s get back to it shall we…
Democratic Senator Evan Bayh had an interesting Op Ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal that I’d suggest reading if you haven’t already.
This week, the United States Senate will vote on a spending package to fund the federal government for the remainder of this fiscal year. The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 is a sprawling, $410 billion compilation of nine spending measures that lacks the slightest hint of austerity from the federal government or the recipients of its largess.
The Senate should reject this bill. If we do not, President Barack Obama should veto it.
The omnibus increases discretionary spending by 8% over last fiscal year’s levels, dwarfing the rate of inflation across a broad swath of issues including agriculture, financial services, foreign relations, energy and water programs, and legislative branch operations. Such increases might be appropriate for a nation flush with cash or unconcerned with fiscal prudence, but America is neither.
Drafted last year, the bill did not pass due to Congress’s long-standing budgetary dysfunction and the frustrating delays it yields in our appropriations work. Since then, economic and fiscal circumstances have changed dramatically, which is why the Senate should go back to the drawing board. The economic downturn requires new policies, not more of the same.
Democrats rightly criticised Republicans for their out of control spending over much of the last 8 years… Unfortunately for us Democrats seem hell bent on making the Republicans look fiscally responible.