The High Water Mark

A blogger over at The Next Right makes a prediction:

...this new deficit will mean that, by Congressional standards, every agency that gets money in this "special times" "stimulus" will be able to complain about "slashed" budgets next year if they do not get the same amount of money.

Thus the Dems will do two things:

Retain much if not all of the additional spending.

Trumpet their fiscal conservatism as they "slash the budget" when all they are really doing is reducing the 2010 budget to, say, 25% more than it was in 2008 . . . but they will call it a reduction since it is less than what was spent in the "special year" of 2009.

And they will get away with it to because the Reps don't have the ba . . . er, courage to stand up to them and tell the nation what is really going on.

And that's because, after the last eight years, the GOP has zero credibility on spending. Bush legitimizes every Pelosi wet dream. And the collapse of demand makes this an unfelicitous moment to champion fiscal austerity. My view is that fiscal conservatives should focus on entitlements and long-term spending commitments and let Obama own the short-term stimulus, as he must.