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Well, it's almost that time again. Time for President Clinton and members of Congress to start putting their heads together and come up with a new federal budget for fiscal year 1995. And you know what happens when these folks put their heads together...
That's right: a feeding frenzy at the federal trough.
Last time around, during the battle over the budget for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 1994, the Clinton Administration insisted America would have to endure a record-breaking tax hike. And though Congress put on a big show about the need to cut spending first, we got both higher taxes and increased spending. As the great Yogi Berra once said: It looked like deja vu all over again.
Unfortunately, while everyone was talking about austerity and "deficit reduction," members of Congress were busy inserting billions of dollars worth of pork-barrel projects into federal appropriations bills-a surefire way to increase their visibility in their home districts and curry favor with powerful special interests.
One member wanted to build a parking garage in Burlington, IA, for $2.5 million Somebody else wanted to spend $11 million on potato research. We all know how badly America needs a "National Textile Center," so someone else sneak that in-to the tune of $9 million. And a if the fiscal 1993 deficit of $285 billion wasn't enough, $100 million was the price tag for research on "Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems."
Some Americans, listening to the president's mantra, probably believed that the biggest tax hike in U.S. history was going to pay for deficit reduction. What really will pay for is more government spending.
Through tax increases and other revenue devices, the fiscal 1994 budget will make U.S. taxpayers approximately $263 billion poorer over the next five years-and make Washington that much richer. The government needs that money to finance an estimated $313 billion in additional spending.
Even today, many Americans still...