Republican senator James Inhofe (said to be the “most outstanding conservative U.S. Senator” by Human Events and the American Conservative Union) has introduced the Honest Expenditure Limitation Program (HELP) Act of 2010 to rein in government spending. He proposes to freeze discretionary spending at “FY08 levels for all ‘non-security’ appropriations, which exclude Defense, Homeland Security, State, Veterans Administration, and national security functions of Energy.” And in case you were wondering, “Spending for overseas military operations would be exempt from the cap.”
What Inhofe and Republicans want is a slight reduction in the welfare state while increasing the warfare state. Democrats want just the opposite: a slight reduction in the warfare state while increasing the welfare state.
Republican calls for reductions in government spending are too little too late. Inhofe has been in the Senate since 1994. Republicans had a majority in the House and Senate for Clinton’s last six years; yet, spending increased every year. And where was Inhofe’s HELP Act when Bush was the president and the Republicans in Congress increased the national debt by almost $5 trillion?
If Inhofe is the most outstanding conservative senator, then the Republicans are worse than I thought.
3:54 pm on March 12, 2010
