“Aren’t these the same folks who say government can’t afford

lower taxes?” asks Schatz

(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today sharply criticized Democrats in Congress for pushing to increase federal funds by as much as $10 billion as the Senate prepares to debate a $385 billion package of left-over fiscal 2003 appropriations bills from the previous Congress that the majority Republicans hope to pass this week.

“Democratic leaders in Congress are obviously drawing the wrong lesson from the last election,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “While fiscal conservatives and advocates of budget and tax reform won in November, some big spenders think they lost because they just didn’t fight hard enough to keep government spending up and taxes high.  If they persist in siding with the Washington special interests and bureaucrats against taxpayers, this era is going to be a tough for them.”

To honor spending limits President Bush has demanded, the Senate GOP would pare $9.8 billion from a version written by Democrats when they controlled the Senate last year, but never enacted into law.  If the Democrats get their way, that differential would balloon into about $115 billion in higher spending over the next decade.

“The ink is barely dry on the president’s bold economic stimulus proposal, and Democrats are screaming for more money,” Schatz continued.  “It is time to pass this year’s appropriations at the $385 billion level and call it a day.”    

Schatz also called on Congress to rededicate itself to budget and spending reform.

“Instead of always increasing spending far beyond inflation, our leaders need to consider ways to cut spending to make room for needed expenditures on defense and economic stimulus,” Schatz said.  “When a budget is rife with as much duplication, waste, mismanagement, pork, and corporate welfare as is the federal government’s, taxpayers need leaders who will challenge the big spending status quo, not call for more on top of more.”

“And what about deficits?  Democrats have decried rising budget shortfalls, but now they want spending increases,” Schatz added.  “It seems ‘fiscal discipline’ applies only when tax cuts are on the table.”

“Democrats are in a circular firing squad here,” Schatz concluded.  “If they really want to stand up before American voters and say tax relief is unaffordable but a larger Washington bureaucracy is essential, Republicans should let them.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.  Its annual Prime Cuts publication recommends 548 cuts to the federal budget that would save $1.2 trillion over the next five years.