The House Republicans seem to have mislaid their ideological position cheat sheets, and to have gotten themselves completely turned around. "No! No!" they cry. "We're the party of big government and high spending. It's those nasty Democrats who want to not-fund the important domestic social welfare state programs!"
Posted by DeLong at June 24, 2002 06:09 PMHouse GOP to Democrats: We're the Big Spenders
Remember 1995, when newly powerful House Republicans vowed to eliminate government programs and slash federal spending? How times have changed. This week, their battle cry was... Let's start a new entitlement program for the elderly. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-California, touted a Medicare prescription drug bill approved by his committee as creating a permanent "entitlement" for seniors. He contrasted the GOP measure with one introduced recently by Senate Democrats that he derided as "nothing more than a demostration project." (The Democratic program would sunset after five years so that Congress could see whether it was working.) Republicans SUPPORT permanent Rx drug benefits; Democrats DON'T," states a handout that Thomas circulated...
"Inside Washington," National Journal: The Weekly on Politics and Government 34:25 (June 22, 2002), p. 1829.