Monday, president Bush touted his alleged fiscal conservatism. If he’s fiscally conservative, I don’t know what fiscally liberal would look like. Here’s what he said:
“I want to remind you of a fact that I think you’ll find interesting – or maybe you won’t find interesting, but I find it interesting – that non-military, non-homeland security discretionary spending was at 15 percent – increase from year to year was at 15 percent prior to our arrival, then it was at 6 percent, 5 percent and 3 percent. So we’re working with Congress to hold the line on spending. And we do have a plan to cut the deficit in half.”
Here’s a link to a Cato Institute study on federal non-defense non-homeland security discretionary spending over the last few years. Here’s Heritage’s account of how Bush’s touted “3 percent” for 2004 is actually 9 percent. Here’s a graph detailing Bush’s massive increases in domestic spending. Note that these studies are from groups favorably disposed to the administration. There are a few options here. Either I’ve missed something or the president a) doesn’t know what he’s talking about or b) he’s lying. Let’s hope I’ve missed something, shall we?
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Evil, that is, has every advantage but one–it is inferior in imagination. Good can imagine the possibility of becoming evil–hence the refusal of Gandalf and Aragorn to use the Ring–but Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself. Sauron cannot imagine any motives except lust for domination and fear so that, when he has learned that his enemies have the Ring, the thought that they might try to destroy it never enters his head, and his eye is kept toward Gondor and away from Mordor and the Mount of Doom.” – W. H. Auden, reviewing Tolkien’s masterpiece, from the New York Times, January 1956.
BAATHIST BROADCASTING COROPRATION WATCH: Glenn Reynolds has the scoop on how the Beeb managed to quash the Iraqi foreign minister’s criticism of the U.N. They would, wouldn’t they?
The Dish 