I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. Bill Clinton's last budget is worse than I thought.
The Cato Institute's Stephen Moore rightly calls it the biggest budget in World History: $1.8 trillion. It contains more than 100 new Federal initiatives; and not a single failed Federal program is eliminated. The man who declared the era of big government over will leave office with the government $400 billion bigger than when he came in.
The tax cuts are an insult: $15 billion against the government's $2 trillion in revenues. The book juggling's an insult too: Clinton cuts badly needed increases in Defense Spending to pile money on domestic programs. And the cynicism is glaring. Many of the new programs he proposes will only have small amounts spent on them now; but Washington insiders have a good idea why: so they'll be on the books for a Gore administration to glut with money.
If facing this budget isn't the time for house republicans to stand up and be counted, I can't imagine what would be. But can they? Tune in tomorrow.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont.