On other economic matters, the president sounded less credible. He called for Congress to act as ”good stewards of taxpayer dollars.” But this Republican Congress has spent more than any Democratic Congress in recent memory. And this president has not used his veto pen even once to force Congress to be better stewards of the people’s money. An omnibus spending bill that awaits passage is full of enough pork to gag a sow.
As the Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial the morning of the speech, the GOP has been on a spending spree that exceeds by far Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society. During Bill Clinton’s administration, non-defense discretionary spending rose just 2.5 percent. During President Bush’s three years in office, it has jumped 8.2 percent. Having tasted such huge amounts of pork, Congress is not likely to listen to the president’s call for limiting the growth in discretionary spending to less than 4 percent and reducing wasteful spending.
So, Republicans are spending more money than Johnson, who did so well with his two wars against poverty and Vietnam. Is this a Great Society, or what? mjh