Quoth President Obama: "It's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks about this recovery package, after they've presided over a doubling of the national debt. I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility." 
By the time you read this column, there is no knowing what the size of Obama economic stimulus package will be. Just below $800 billion? A little more? Whatever the price tag ends up being, expect it to be a testament to the cynicism of D.C. Democrats.
Not that long ago, Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were taking potshots at President George W. Bush for supporting deficit spending. Now that they're in power, they're spending money at record speed that Washington doesn't have. And they're still blaming the Republicans.
Will they ever be responsible for the choices they make? I can understand Obama talking about the economic ills which he inherited in terms of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's proposed $2.5 trillion bank bailout plan.
This is different. In November, the Obama stimulus package was supposed to cost about $300 billion. Now it has more than doubled in size.
Sure, as Obama noted, some of the president's Republican critics once supported big spending under George W. Bush. But there are high-profile Republicans -- think GOP 2008 nominee John McCain -- who fought against excessive spending in the Bush years. That is, McCain is being true to his principles in dismissing the stimulus package as "an act of generational theft."
Continued... |