Why George Bush isn't a fiscal conservative
The man spends like a Democrat. And they didn't even like him for it. A huge number of these were for poverty, environment, education, health, etc., indirectly and under the table adding thousands to the government payroll and subverting state and local control. That's why Obama's campaign of concern and caring for us po' folk who could barely walk and chew gum without the federal government's help was so odd. It can only grow, and yet more of what didn't work under a Republican will work under a Democrat?
From Chris Edwards,
Cato at Liberty, Dec. 4, 2007.
This chart updates
a longer article he published in October 2006. I noticed in that article one of the biggest new initiatives of the Bush Administration was $150,000,000 for "Healthy Marriage Promotion," which
provided grants to states, non-profits, etc. to provide counseling, workshops and celebrations of events such as National Black Marriage Day.
Healthy Marriage Grants will range from $250,000 to $5,000,000 depending on the scope of the project. Average award: $1,000,000. Responsible Fatherhood Grants will range from $200,000 to $2,000,000 depending on the scope of the project. Average award: $700,000. Tribal TANF Child Welfare Grants will range from $25,000 to $100,000. Average Award: $80,000.
Children raised by married parents have a very modest chance of growing up in poverty, whereas an unmarried mom almost guarantees it. However, I think this was an open invitation for misuse of the taxpayers money. The required audits will never try to judge how many teen minority fathers married the mothers of their children because they attended a workshop. Churches have been working on this problem for years even with middle class families, and losing ground. I don't think throwing $150 million at it will change much (unless they throw it at Hollywood or TV which seems a bigger influence than church or parents). As in all these subsidies, very little makes it to the problem, and most goes for overhead like salaries, rent, utilities, food, consultants, printing, publishing, research, etc. Here's an
article in the Columbus Dispatch of how $500,000 that came to Ohio was spent.
Here's a list of the top 10% of
CFDA searches. I've been writing a lot about the housing grants, so here's a few from that list. All would require partnering non-profits with with business or state agencies or alone.
10.442 USDA Housing Application Packaging Grants
10.410 USDA Very Low to Moderate Income Housing Loans
14.313 HUD Dollar Home Sales
14.247 HUD Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program
14.235 HUD Supportive Housing Program
97.048 DHS Disaster Housing Assistance to Individuals and Householdsin Presidential Declared Disaster Areas (must have been the mother of housing boondoggles: FY 07 $189,366,831--probably could have completely rebuilt NOLA with this grant--it's just one year figure)
10.417 USDA Very Low-Income Housing Repair Loans and Grants
14.311 HUD Single Family Property Disposition
14.239 HUD Home Investment Partnerships Program
14.149 HUD Rent Supplements_Rental Housing for Lower Income Families
10.433 USDA Rural Housing Preservation Grants
14.195 HUD Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program_Special Allocations
15.633 DOI Landowner Incentive Program
14.401 HUD Fair Housing Assistance Program_State and Local
10.415 USDA Rural Rental Housing Loans
14.901 HUD Healthy Homes Demonstration Grants
10.427 USDA Rural Rental Assistance Payments
14.871 HUD Section 8 Housing Choice VouchersThis is an old one--originally authorized in 1937--FY 09 est $16,253,000,000--yes, that's 16 billion for 2 million families, and they only get part of the rent--wonder where the rest of it goes? That's some overhead!
14.401 HUD Fair Housing Assistance Program_State and Local
10.415 USDA Rural Rental Housing Loans
14.181 HUD Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities
14.169 HUD Housing Counseling Assistance Program [FY 09 est $60,000,000]
14.856 HUD Lower Income Housing Assistance Program_Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation
10.411 USDA Rural Housing Site Loans and Self_Help Housing Land Development Loans
14.157 HUD Supportive Housing for the Elderly[FY 09 est $791,303,000] Based on the numbers of units built in 2007 (3,857) I figure they cost about $195,000 each--not bad for single resident, low income.
14.250 HUD Rural Housing and Economic Development [FY 08 $17,000,000 The only accomplishments listed were 854 jobs]
81.042 DOE Weatherization Assistance for Low-Income Persons [FY 07 $204,356,661 this one is about $50,000,000 less in FY 09--must be that global warming benefit]
93.568 HHS Low-Income Home Energy Assistance
14.142 HUD Property Improvement Loan Insurance for Improving All Existing Structures and Building of New Nonresidential Structures
14.110 HUD Manufactured Home Loan Insurance_Financing Purchase of Manufactured Homes as Principal Residences of Borrowers
From Chris Edwards, Cato at Liberty, Dec. 4, 2007. 
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5 comments:
There is George W. Bush, who inherited a $128 billion surplus in 2001 and yet has so far ran up the national debt by a whopping $2.78 trillion - not including of course the recent bailout of Wall Street on his watch that will cost the taxpayers an additional $700 billion. The scale of this disaster is only now coming into grim focus and will no doubt hobble the economy of the US for generations into the future. Besides his obvious incompetence, Bush’s contribution to crushing national debt was fueled mainly by tax cuts and military spending.
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Sally
Influencer
Yes, it happened on his watch, but is entirely in the lap of Congress. He did make (feeble) attempts to rein in the GSEs, and the rise of the ACORN type housing terrorists fed and fueled by these programs were strictly the fault of liberals and marxists within the government. But Bush certainly can be credited for growing the federal government by using private/public partnerships. And it will only get worse, although church groups will be pushed out, since that's an anomoly of Bush.
I'm still trying to grasp 16 billion for rent subsidies for 2 million families. Where'd the gov't put them, penthouses in Dubai?
A lot of the cost came from the war in Iraq, and his unwillingness to finance it. It is squarely in his lap. Cutting taxes when you have to pay for a war? C'mon, that doesn't make any sense.
Oh, and for the record, Ronald Reagan wasn't a fiscal conservative either. When was the last time there was a Republican president that was a fiscal conservative?
It's a nice thought, RL, that somehow the war cut into social programs, but obviously, to look at the chart of growth in subsidies, Bush did both. We still spend more on social programs than on 2 wars. And it would have been exactly the same had Al Gore taken the oath of office in 2001...wars and all.
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