WASHINGTON -- With a tough election looming in the United States, congressional Republicans have opened the Treasury to every interest group with a letterhead. Budget analysts Stephen Moore and Stephen Slivinski figure this Congress may end up as the biggest social spender since the 1970s.
Between 1996 and 2000, the GOP-controlled Congress has spent $187 billion more than the Republicans promised when they assumed control in 1995. Most of that money has gone to good ol' political standbys, many of which the Republicans once promised to kill.
In its "Contract with America" the GOP pledged to eliminate three Cabinet departments and 95 programs with budgets in excess of $10 million. But the departments and programs survive and, say Moore and Slivinski, their budgets have actually risen 13 percent since 1995.