posted on December 8, 2005 09:12:56 AM new
Fiscal Responsibility Redux
Posted by Ilan at 11:01 AM
Yet another (somewhat unexpected) voice has joined reasonable people's call for a return to responsible federal spending. As the Washington Times explains:
Economist Milton Friedman, a strong supporter of President Bush's tax cuts, says the past four years of Republican spending increases are "disgraceful" and a betrayal of the party's principles.
"I'm disgusted by it," the winner of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences told The Washington Times recently.
"For the first time in many years, the Republicans have control of Congress. But once in power, the spending limits were off and it's disgraceful because they went against their principles."
Federal spending as a share of the entire economy was 18.4 percent when Mr. Bush took office in 2001. Since then, the government's annual spending levels have grown by $610 billion or to 20.2 percent of the economy, according to figures compiled by the Heritage Foundation.
