It wasn’t quite a week ago when some of the leading Republicans in Congress, many of whom plan to run for president, emphasized how much they abhor all the federal spending that has increased since 2001. Sure, it’s been a Republican Congress working with a Republican President, but they didn’t want to be bothered with pesky details. These guys want to cut spending, reduce the deficit, and bring some fiscal sanity to Washington — and they want to do it right now.
Well, OK, maybe not now.
The Senate narrowly approved a $2.8 trillion election-year budget Thursday that broke spending limits only hours after it increased federal borrowing power to avert a government default.
The budget decision at the end of a marathon day of voting followed a separate 52-to-48 Senate vote to increase the federal debt limit by $781 billion, bringing the debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion. The move left Democrats attacking President Bush and Congressional Republicans for piling up record debt in their years in power.
By the end of the day, lawmakers had allowed themselves to add about $800 billion to the national debt, followed by a vote to spend well over $100 billion on the war in Iraq, hurricane relief, education, health care, transportation. and heating assistance for the poor — without making offsetting budget cuts. And this, of course, comes just two days after Senate Republicans rejected a plan to restore “paygo” rules.
For the record, the five Senate Republicans who seem to be the most serious about a presidential run — Allen, Brownback, Frist, Hagel, and McCain — all voted for more spending, less than a week after several of them vowed to take the lead on fiscal discipline.
What explains the discrepancy? Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said, “All the talk in Memphis doesn’t comport with the reality of these important programs.” You could almost hear congressional Dems snickering.