"The Grand Old Spending Party"

Fareed Zakaria - I sometimes disagree with the guy, but, unlike so many other columnists, he actually seems to reason an argument out and not just fire the first gut level bashing based on his team's talking points. Pro-Bush, Anti-Bush, Pro-Iraq war, Anti-Iraq war, it's nuanced. He actually seems to be able to like one part of Bush strategy and while disliking another. Kind of strange to come across grown-up opinions in this media era.

...Bush will go down in history as the most fiscally irresponsible chief executive in American history. Since 2001, government spending has gone up from $1.86 trillion to $2.48 trillion, a 33 percent rise in four years! Defense and Homeland Security are not the only culprits. Domestic spending is actually up 36 percent in the same period. .....

What we can't afford simultaneously is $1.4 trillion in tax cuts and more than $1 trillion in new entitlement spending over the next 10 years .....

Today's Republicans believe in pork, but they don't believe in government. So we have the largest government in history but one that is weak and dysfunctional. Public spending is a cynical game of buying votes or campaign contributions, an utterly corrupt process run by lobbyists and special interests with no concern for the national interest