As Marc alluding to in his post yesterday, conservatives are having a hard time swallowing the Bush administration's spending frenzy. While Bush hasn't seen a loss of support amoung grassroots conservatives, he is beginning to take some heat from conservative eggheads, including Grover Norquist and places like Cato and Heritage foundation. I don't think this is going to carry any water, politically, at least not in the short term. However, if Bush continues to spend money on things outside of homeland security and the war on terror, conservatives may revolt. If it happened, you probably wouldn't see any effects until the mid-term elections in 2006 and possibly a conservative challenger to whoever Bush's hand-picked successor is in 2008. Here's a taste of the article:
But when a White House official presented this analysis to a meeting he attended recently, "I nearly laughed out loud," said Heritage's Riedl. He calculates that 55 percent of all new spending in the past two years, or $164 billion of $296 billion, is from areas unrelated to defense and homeland security. Unemployment benefits are up 85 percent, education spending up 65 percent. "It's really an across-the-board thing," he said. This has led federal spending to top $20,000 per household in today's dollars for the first time since World War II -- a jump of $4,000 in the past four years.
Two quick links form the world of politics: Al Sharpton's appearence on SNL tonight will not be seen in Iowa, due to equal time laws. What's most striking here is that there are 4 (four!) NBC affiliates in Iowa. My question is, outside of Des Moines, where are the other three? (I could do some research and find out, but they don't really pay me for that.)
Second, because we all wish it was 1995 again, Hillary Clinton and Newt Gingrich will be guests on Meet the Press this Sunday. Why? Probably the same reason Gingrich was elected speaker. Newt's a fun name to say.
Tony
