WASHINGTON, D.C. — By Citizens Against Government Waste's (CAGW) analysis, during the next five years the U.S. government will flush at least $1.2 trillion down the drain in uncorrected waste, fraud, and abuse.  So, to tell the American people that government can't pay its bills and has no choice but to raise taxes — during a near-recession no less — takes real brass.  But that is just what House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) recently did.  For playing politics against the president's barely-in-effect tax cut and defending the Washington waste status quo, CAGW names Rep. Gephardt its Porker of the Month for August 2001.

While campaigning for a fellow House Democrat in Iowa last month, Gephardt told the crowd he was proud of past tax hikes and implied more of the same if Democrats regain control in the House.  "Let me tell you something," he said.  "I am glad we did what was right in 1993 [by raising taxes], and I’ll do it again, because I believe in being fiscally responsible with the taxpayers' money."

As a matter of policy and economics, Gephardt's argument is nonsense: government revenue declines due to a weak economy, yet stimulative tax cuts are harmful because their short-term consequence might reduce revenues a bit further.  So what then?  Allow the economy to go into full-blown recession to prevent a short-term reduction of the surplus?  Further, don't we recall Gephardt vociferously fighting past years' tax cuts on grounds that the strong economy didn't "need" them?  As a favorite Democratic slogan says, if not now, when? 

The real effect of Gephardt's tax increase plan would be continued masking of Washington's outrageous waste.  Agencies make at least $20 billion annually in improper payments.  There are scores of ineffectual and duplicative programs for at-risk youth and improving literacy that cost tens of billions.  The acquisitions process by which most government entities purchase equipment wastes hundreds of billions more.  And many federal agencies today still lack the most elementary procedures for tracking and overseeing how public money is spent.   

Further, corporate welfare costs $65 billion annually.  The tax code saps about $500 billion in yearly compliance costs, and the regulatory state adds $1.4 trillion.  Pork-barrel projects — like the Dr. Seuss memorial in Massachusetts, peanut competitiveness research in Georgia, and the Vulcan Statue in Alabama — are projected to top $20 billion for this year alone and have cost taxpayers more than $120 billion since 1991.  Total discretionary spending increased by 11 percent in fiscal 2000 and 8 percent in 2001, well above inflation, with 2002 increases expected to be in the same range.   

And Gephardt thinks Americans — currently taxed at the highest rate in peacetime history — don't pay enough to government?

Despite denials since his remarks first appeared in print, Gephardt's tax-and-spend credentials speak for themselves.  He was the prince of darkness behind the 1993 tax increase on income and gas, and in June 1999 said that if Democrats won back the House, he would be "proud" to seek higher taxes for education.  He generally represents his party's most spendthrift impulses, receiving in the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste's Congressional Ratings last year a pathetic annual score of zero and lifetime rating of 11 percent (out of 100) for his anti-taxpayer voting record.

For his long-held belief that all tax cuts are indefensible, that government spending should get substantially larger, and for defending the Washington waste machine, CAGW awards House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt its Porker of the Month Award for August 2001.

CAGW is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in government.  For more information, see CAGW's web site at www.cagw.org.