(Hot Air props)
Remember when Democrats insisted on pay-go rules in 2006 as evidence of their fiscal responsibility? Recall how they scoffed when George Bush used the 9/11 attacks and the economic damage done by them as a reason for increased deficit spending? Well, Democrats sound more and more like George Bush every day. Pay-go, the Wall Street Journal notes, is officially a goner, and the Democrats are the ones reaching for rationalizations:
As Congress gears up to pass another spending “stimulus” bill, there’s one political silver lining: Democrats are being forced to abandon the pretense of fiscal conservatism known as “pay as you go” budgeting.
Late last week the leader of the House Blue Dog Coalition, Tennessee Democrat Jim Cooper, announced that with Barack Obama about to enter the White House, “I’m not sure the old rules are relevant anymore.” Why not? Because, Mr. Cooper said, “It would be unfair to the new President to put him in a budget straitjacket.”
Why call this a “silver lining”? It’s more than just a demonstration of rank hypocrisy by the Democrats. It removes one of their favorite rationales for tax hikes. While Bush and the Republicans spent money between 2001-6 in a manner that would embarrass drunken sailors, Democrats claimed that the irresponsibility didn’t come from the spending, but from the failure to confiscate more money from taxpayers to fund it....
