After a trillion dollar prescription drug subsidy, a nearly unprecedented expansion of farm welfare, four years of hardline protectionism, two expensive wars, a new federal cabinet-level bureaucracy, and an acceleration of domestic non-defense spending at twice the rate that we saw under Clinton, the Republican Congress has again redefined fiscal conservatism for all of us, voting to raise the debt ceiling to 8.2 trillion dollars. (That means that the federal government's debt limit – at least until they decide to raise it again – is about $27,000 for every American man, woman and child.)
The vote was along party lines, with Democrat Charles Rangel saying, "I think there must be some spiritual immorality for children who are yet unborn to come into this world with a debt on their shoulders that their parents have no idea as to how it was accumulated."
Isn't it great to have Republicans in power? We get to hear the likes of Rangel sound like voices of reason. And to think, Bush hasn't even begun his second term yet.
