Now go to the corner for your time out and don't move till we say so:
We don't usually worry too much about government borrowing, but this year the government is asking the debt market for a tremendous amount of cash. Although President Obama never tires of informing us that he inherited a projected $1.2 trillion deficit, the Congressional Budget Office has recently updated that number upward to $1.7 trillion. That means that since he took office, Obama has added the equivalent of Bush's largest deficit ($455 billion) to the deficit he inherited.
Much of that increase reflects the ponderous stimulus package Congress recently passed. One must admire the gall of senators like Indiana Democrat Evan Bayh and Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter — both of whom voted for the $800 billion stimulus bill — as they admonish their colleagues over a measly 8 percent bump in domestic spending. If lots of government spending is good for the economy, as these senators insisted just weeks ago, isn't more spending better? Both Bayh and Specter are up for re-election in moderate states, and one hopes their constituents won't be fooled by this attempt to regain their squandered credibility on fiscal discipline.
