Dubious Democratic Deficit Hawks

Fire of Liberty

If you paid attention to the victorious Democrats on the night of the 2006 elections, then you'll recall that these various Democrats entered their new term vowing to introduce fiscal sanity to the halls of Congress. Well after looking at this most recent editorial "Democrats and the Deficit" by the good folks over at the New York Sun, it looks like the Democrats haven't found a spending project they didn't like(Well that's if its non-Defense or Iraq related) to fatten. Here's a look at the recent work of the spendthrift Democrat led Congress:

Now that the Democrats have been in control of Congress, the taxing and spending branch of the government, for a year, the deficit is starting to balloon. That is the message we get from the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which reports that "the federal budget deficit was about $107 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008, CBO estimates — about $27 billion more than in the same period last year." Reports the CBO, "Outlays have risen by 9 percent compared with their level in the first three months of 2007."

Lest the Democrats blame the soaring spending on the war in Iraq, the CBO reports that "Defense and non-defense spending each rose by about 8 percent, while net interest on the public debt increased by 17 percent." One big driver of spending was Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor. The CBO reports, "Medicaid spending in the first quarter was almost 11 percent more than the program's outlays in the first three months of 2007."

If the Democrats can spend such money in such a short time, could you imagine if they had a greater majority and a Democratic president who have some expensive wish list. Now I know I have been highly critical of President Bush on spending in the past but he has least worked hard in chopping down the federal deficit these many years and is becoming a champion of limited government with his current vetoes. So maybe folks need to think about the candidates on the Democrats side calling for "change"(And to a lesser extent on the Republican side) before they rally to their side.