WSJ: Conservatives Balk As Spending Soars In Katrina's Wake

[question everything]

Conservatives Balk As Spending Soars In Katrina's Wake

By JACKIE CALMES
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 16, 2005; Page A3

(snip)

Following the nation's worst-ever natural disaster, no Republican in Congress is opposing federal aid that already totals $62 billion and is expected to exceed $200 billion. But the party's conservative wing, led yesterday by Oklahoma's Tom Coburn in the Senate and Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana in the House, is calling for offsetting "sacrifices" in federal spending. And they're backed by a growing chorus of conservative activists, columnists and bloggers.

(snip)

The divisions go to a broader debate over the party's identity and legacy a decade after Republicans broke Democrats' 40-year control of Congress and nearly five years after they captured the White House as well. But conservatives' rebelliousness threatens a range of Bush initiatives before Congress. Moreover, Republican strategists worry that widespread disenchantment among the party's bedrock conservatives could lead many to stay home in next year's midterm elections.

In a year marked by setbacks to Mr. Bush's foreign and domestic agenda, Hurricane Katrina's costs to the federal government have dashed the one boast Mr. Bush had -- that a sound economy was producing higher-than-expected tax revenue, and bringing down the deficit. Deficits are expected to be much higher than the $333 billion the White House recently projected for the year ending Sept. 30 and $341 billion for fiscal 2006.

(snip)

Administration officials also express frustration that conservatives in Congress are criticizing the White House even as Congress has balked at making the Medicaid cuts that Mr. Bush had called for earlier this year. Also taking conservatives' hits is House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, after the Texas Republican this week told reporters that for all the complaints that hurricane spending must be offset by spending cuts, "nobody has been able to come up with any yet." He suggested that the government has little fat. "After 11 years of Republican majority, we've pared it down pretty good," he said. "This comes as quite a surprise to most Americans," wrote budget analyst Brian Riedl at the conservative Heritage Foundation. He and others, including the Coburn-Pence group, gave Mr. DeLay's office their lists of proposed budget cuts, including some that Mr. Bush proposed in February. Mr. Coburn said the president's budget director, Joshua Bolten, told him there wasn't time to take up such proposals.

(snip)

Beyond spending, many conservatives are troubled by the prospect that a new government bureaucracy will be created to handle the Katrina response. Even before Katrina hit, they had become increasingly critical of the White House for the jump in federal spending on Mr. Bush's watch. They also cite the creation of the huge Department of Homeland Security, an expanded federal role in grade-school education and a prescription-drug benefit for Medicare recipients that is the biggest new federal entitlement program since Medicare itself.

(snip)


Write to Jackie Calmes at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112683100347942461,00.html (subscription)

[jackster]

1. so yes to killing innocents in Iraq, there's plenty of money for that

but no to saving Americans in NOLA - no money for that

Damn, guess it's time for another one of those tax cuts for the rich

[Syncronaut Seven]

2. Sure wish we still had that fat budget surplus

Would have rebuilt NOLA twice.

[question everything]

3. This was the first reaction after the 9/11 attack

I remember Clinton's first economic adviser, do not remember her name, and someone else were in a panel and said how lucky we were to have surplus to be able to handle the economic blows and help the victims and their families and the City of New York.