Deficit Demagogues (NY Times)

[kentuck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/21/opinion/21tue1.html?_r=1&oref=login

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Less than a week after he denounced the "wayward path" of deficit spending to a gathering of 2,000 Republican Party stalwarts, Senator Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader and would-be president, was busy presiding over business as usual in the Senate. Last Thursday, Mr. Frist, 49 of his fellow Republican senators and one Democrat approved a $2.8 trillion budget for 2007. The budget vote came just hours after Mr. Frist and 51 other Republicans voted to raise the nation's debt limit for the fourth time in five years — this time by $781 billion, to nearly $9 trillion. All of that increase will be needed to pay for earlier tax cuts and spending increases, and, if the Republicans get their way on taxes, to pay for future deficit-financed tax cuts.

Wayward, indeed. Mr. Frist has voted for every major spending increase and tax cut backed by President Bush since 2001. As the Senate leader for more than three years, he bears even greater responsibility than his fellow enablers for the country's dismal financial condition. Yet he is certainly not alone these days in calling for greater budget restraint while pursuing reckless policies. Other Republican presidential hopefuls, notably Senator George Allen and Senator John McCain, have also been coming out forcefully as fiscal conservatives.

Mr. Allen's record is no better than Mr. Frist's. Mr. McCain made a stand by voting against the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003 and Mr. Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. But, like his fellow Republican contenders, he supports extending tax cuts for investors, even though they are not paid for.

If leading Republicans were serious about the deficit, here's what they'd be saying:

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