Democrats and the Deficit

Now that the Democrats have been in control of Congress, the taxing and spending branch of the government, for a year, the deficit is starting to balloon. That is the message we get from the latest estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which reports that "the federal budget deficit was about $107 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008, CBO estimates — about $27 billion more than in the same period last year." Reports the CBO, "Outlays have risen by 9 percent compared with their level in the first three months of 2007."

Lest the Democrats blame the soaring spending on the war in Iraq, the CBO reports that "Defense and non-defense spending each rose by about 8 percent, while net interest on the public debt increased by 17 percent." One big driver of spending was Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor. The CBO reports, "Medicaid spending in the first quarter was almost 11 percent more than the program's outlays in the first three months of 2007."

Readers of these columns may recall our series of editorials on "the incredible shrinking deficit," which have made the point that the economic growth created by President Bush's tax cuts has made the deficit shrink as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, and even in nominal terms. Mr. Bush has done his part by vetoing many bloated spending bills approved by the Democratic Congress, but he can't veto everything, or the government will cease to operate and the troops in Iraq will start having to budget bullets. For all the talk by the Democratic candidates on the campaign trail about restoring fiscal responsibility to Washington, the Democrats in Washington, led by the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, are the ones to blame for the explosion in federal spending on their watch.