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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wayners who wrote (678401)	4/6/2005 5:20:52 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Conservative economist Bruce Bartlett, long an opponent of a V.A.T., has changed his mind, he tells readers of the New York Times op-ed page. "In the 1980's and 1990's, I thought it was possible to restrain the growth of government by cutting taxes. This would 'starve the beast,' as Ronald Reagan used to say, and force government to live on its allowance. And after Republicans got control of Congress in 1994, I thought the means had finally come to make a frontal assault on the welfare state." "I have been sadly disappointed. After an initial effort at restraining Medicare spending — squelched by President Bill Clinton's veto pen — Republicans in Congress have become almost indistinguishable from Democrats on spending. They have been aided and abetted by President Bush, who not only refuses to veto anything, but also aggressively worked to ram a $23.5 trillion (of which $18.2 trillion must be covered by the general revenue) expansion of Medicare down the throats of the few small government conservatives left in the House." "This behavior has led me and other conservatives to conclude that starving the beast simply doesn't work anymore. Deficits are no longer a barrier to greater government spending. And with the baby-boom generation aging, spending is set to explode in coming years even if no new government programs are enacted." nytimes.com