[+/-] The big spenders

Who said it?

For years, Republicans argued that the Democratic majority in Congress was intruding the federal government into more and more matters best left to the states, the local communities, or the private sector. After 10 years in power, however, the Republicans have seen the Democrats' intrusiveness and raised them. The Republicans have pushed the feds further into the local schools with the No Child Left Behind Act and tried to take marriage law away from the states with the Federal Marriage Amendment. They overruled a series of Florida courts in the Terri Schiavo case, imposing the massive power of the federal government on a tragic family matter.

But it's not just these big-ticket items. Republicans have come down with a serious case of Potomac Fever. They believe that their every passing thought is a proper subject for federal legislation. They hold three-ring-circus hearings on steroids in baseball. They sharply increase the fines for alleged indecency on television. They hold hearings on whether college textbooks are too expensive. They threaten to punish Major League Baseball if the owners allow left-wing billionaire George Soros to be a part owner of the new team in Washington. They vote for a federal investigation of the video game "Grand Theft Auto."

A. Howard Dean
B. John Kerry
C. The conservative CATO institute.

If you guessed C, you win one of my wife's amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies :)

What have the rethuglicans wrought?

The federal tax code occupies 2 volumes, each thicker than the Bible. But, the Code of Federal Regulations is much larger; it now occupies over 20 feet of shelf space. And it is growing. In 2004, the federal government printed 78,851 pages of new rules and announcements in the daily Federal Register. At 4 minutes per page that would require 2.5 people reading 8 hours per day for a year, just to keep up with the new rules and pronouncements (to say nothing of actually complying with them).... Since 2000, the regulators' budget has grown an amazing 46 percent, after adjusting for inflation.

Remember that the next time you hear a wingnut accusing liberals of confiscating your hard earned money to finance their big government programs.