Conservative groups break with Republican
leadership
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
National leaders of six conservative
organizations yesterday broke with the Republican majorities in the House and
Senate, accusing them of spending like "drunken sailors," and had some strong
words for President Bush as well.
"The Republican
Congress is spending at twice the rate as under Bill Clinton, and President Bush
has yet to issue a single veto," Paul M. Weyrich, national chairman of
Coalitions for America, said at a news briefing with the other five leaders. "I
complained about profligate spending during the Clinton years but never thought
I'd have to do so with a Republican in the White House and Republicans
controlling the Congress."
Warning of adverse
consequences in the November elections, the leaders said the Senate must reject
the latest House-passed omnibus spending bill or Mr. Bush should veto the
measure.
"The whole purpose of having a Republican
president is to lead the Republican Congress," said Paul Beckner, president of
Citizens for a Sound Economy, whose co-chairman is former House Majority Leader
Dick Armey of Texas. "The Constitution gives the president the power to veto
legislation, and if Congress won't act in a fiscally responsible way, the
president has to step in — but he hasn't done that."
"If the president doesn't take a stand on this,
there's a real chance the Republicans' voter base will not be enthusiastic about
turning out in November, no matter who the Democrats nominate," Mr. Beckner
said.
Mr. Weyrich warned that if the Senate passes
the omnibus bill and the president fails to veto it, "in all probability the
party's conservative-activist core voters aren't going to work to help win the
election for Bush and the Republicans, and they may well not even vote."
The Heritage Foundation has projected that passage
of the bill would "mark the third consecutive year of massive discretionary
spending growth" following increases of 13 percent and 12 percent in the
previous two years.
"Congress' continued fiscal
irresponsibility is clearly exhibited in the thousands of pork projects
contained in the bill," the Heritage report noted.
The Heritage report says the omnibus bill will set
the stage for discretionary spending to increase by 9 percent in 2004 to $900
billion, not the 3 percent claimed by Congress.
Asked for comment, Christine Iverson, spokeswoman
for Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie, said that while the last Clinton
budget "proposed a 15 percent increase for spending unrelated to national
defense, homeland security, entitlement programs and interest on the national
debt," the first Bush budget "proposed lowering this increase to 6 percent, the
second budget to below 5 percent and the latest to 2 percent for next year."
But conservative critics said that Congress opted to
spend far more, and Mr. Bush didn't move to stop it.
Mr. Bush and the Republican lawmakers are expected
to face another barrage of criticism next week, this time from some 4,000
activists at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where Vice
President Dick Cheney and Republican congressional leaders are slated to speak.
"A lot of Senate Republicans will be speaking at
CPAC, and the grass-roots conservatives attending won't be shy about their
displeasure," said Richard Lessner, executive director of the American
Conservative Union.
Citizens Against Government
Waste, the Club for Growth and National Taxpayers Union also joined yesterday's
conservative protest of excessive spending.
For more
than a year, a rebellion in Republican ranks has been brewing over the spending
issue. Conservatives, including some House Republicans, finally revolted openly
over the $400 billion prescription-drug benefit passed by Congress and signed by
Mr. Bush last year — which would expand the government with the largest new
entitlement in a generation.
_______________________________________________ Sndbox mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://a8.mewebdns-a8.com/mailman/listinfo/sndbox_sandboxmail.net