-->Christian Sience Monitor

“US Spending Surges to Historic Level. Vote on gargantuan bill in Congress caps a year of stunning growth in government.

“Washington — President Bush and the Republican-led Congress are spending money at a rate not seen since World War II. Spending for national security, it is true, has surged due to the military effort in Iraq and stepped-up homeland security. But judging by a bill that Congress is taking up today, the lasting fiscal legacy of the Bush administration will also include an historic rise in domestic spending that could affect everything from interest rates to a fiscal landscape that could force epic tax increases in the future.

“The spending growth is punctuated this week by a single vote in the House that totals $820 billion... The upshot: federal spending per household is above $20,000 this year. “The Republican party is simply not interested in small government,” says Brian Riedl, a budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, ‘They’re worse than the Democrats they replaced.’”