Giuliani And "The Culture Of Spending"

Messaging: the day before Rudy Giuliani travels to Iowa to deliver a speech on the "culture of spending" that suffocates the federal government, his campaign announced that they're beefing up their field presence in the state.

The Wall Street Journal's John Harwood has a preview:

Giuliani said he will draw on an approach inspired by Ronald Reagan that he practiced in New York City: directing agencies to prepare budgets incorporating actual spending reductions rather than routine increases accounting for inflation. Even if those reductions aren’t achieved, Giuliani said, the process of preparing for them will often have the effect of either holding budgets steady or slowing the rate of increase that would otherwise emerge from the legislative process.

Giuliani said his Wednesday speech will also take aim at budget “earmarks” that have exploded in Congress in recent years, and offer a handful of specific agencies and programs he’d cut as president — in part by capitalizing on technology improvements that can boost productivity. He said he’d offer additional budget-cutting details in a subsequent speech this fall.

The Democratic National Committee and the Iowa Dem Party will circulate a research memo about Giuliani today. The cut line:

Today Giuliani promises to unveil details about his commitment to fiscal discipline. But the facts of Giuliani’s record as mayor – which he keeps asking voters to examine – show that his record really isn’t anything to brag about, nor are the facts quite the way he portrays them.