Collegiate Times

If there is one silver lining on the Hurricane Katrina disaster, it?s that for the first time in recent memory the Republican Party is telling the truth to the American people. With federal spending to rebuild the Gulf region expected to mount in the tens ? if not hundreds ? of billions, many GOP members of Congress are seriously talking about either delaying or eliminating certain big-ticket expenditures to keep the federal deficit from swelling any higher.

One suggestion is to delay funding the Medicare prescription drug benefit, set to begin in January at a cost of $40 billion per year. Another idea is to cut some or all of the 6,000 pork projects from the $286.4 billion transportation bill passed recently.

?We simply cannot break the bank of the federal budget,? said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) on ABC?s ?This Week.? Really?

So am I to take it that running deficits ? colossal ones at that ? every year of the Bush administration is not ?breaking the bank of the federal budget??

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) was quoted as saying, ?We haven?t been disciplined enough over the last 10 years. We need to do that, and we needed to do that before Katrina.?

Yes, senator, you DO need to be more disciplined.

Oh, and here?s my favorite, again from Rep. Pence: ?We can find the cuts in Washington, D.C. ? I really believe that.?

Wow! I believe it?s literally been decades since we heard this kind of brutal honesty out of elected republicans. This now begs the question of why has it taken so long for the GOP majority to make some serious talk of fiscal conservancy.

Some readers are probably thinking at this point that I?m just some bitter liberal who hates Bush and will use this to call for repeal of his so-called ?tax cuts? for the rich. Not so. I love the idea of tax cuts. It is never a bad thing for government to spend less money.

Let?s get one thing straight, though. When you run a deficit, you are automatically creating a tax increase for future generations. To run a deficit our government must borrow money, the lion?s share of which comes from foreign interests: China, the U.K., Saudi Arabia and Korea, to name a few. Eventually this money must be repaid with interest. Currently, over ten percent of all federal spending is going to pay interest on money that?s been borrowed in years past. Expect this number to rise, placing an additional burden on future taxpayers.

The other negative consequence is inflation. When the feds can?t pay up, they simply print money out of thin air. That might seem like an easy solution until you realize that by creating more fiat money (currency not backed by anything of value like silver or gold) you devalue what is already out there. In other words, $100 today might have the buying power of only $90 five years down the line. While this is not a direct tax, it is the government taking away your future buying and investing power.

Republicans are now talking about cutting federal fat. The irony is that they are targeting massive spending programs they themselves passed, including the Medicare drug benefit and the 6,000 transportation pork projects.

Remember, this is the same group of people who took over 10 years ago on the promise of reigning in fiscal mismanagement. Since then, we?ve heard nothing but excuses as to why they can?t do it. They can devote plenty of time to fighting flag burning and same-sex marriage, but they just can?t seem to remember that big promise that got them elected in the first place. Well, the time for forgetfulness and excuses is over. I have a clear message for all fiscal conservatives out there: It is time to leave the Republican Party, once and for all.

The GOP has not and will not make good on their pledge to control spending. This should be clearly evidenced by the fact that discretionary spending ? not including the Iraq War ? under Bush has risen at a higher rate every year than it ever did under ?Tax-and-spend Democrat? Clinton.

I know that there are a lot of people out there who are just as concerned about reckless fiscal policy as I am. The only way to stem this tide is to punish those who are responsible for it by voting every one of them out of office and replacing them with a new crew who has been screaming for responsible spending for years. I won?t say flat-out who this should be, but their name starts with an ?L? and their campus affiliate?s website is www.libertarian.org.vt.edu.

We must dig ourselves out of this giant hole we?ve dug before it?s too late. Our children and grandchildren deserve no less.