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Over Spending. "The most revealing factoid about the Bush administration's budget is this: After scouring the entire $2.4 trillion of federal spending, the White House found 65 programs that it deemed so unneeded or ineffective that they should be eliminated. How much do these programs cost? About $4.9 billion. Although that's a lot of money, it's only 0.2 percent of federal spending -- two-tenths of 1 percent. This qualifies as an aggressive assault on government spending?

There's the budget problem in a nutshell: Government programs are virtually immortal. Because nothing can ever be revoked, the budget becomes a perpetual motion machine for higher spending .. It will be said that Bush's budget is "irresponsible." But the irresponsibility does not lie in today's deficits .. The irresponsibility lies in the administration's unwillingness to look beyond the business cycle and present a balanced budget -- ever. It won't say: "Here's a desirable level of spending; the public benefits justify the taxes." Democrats commit the same sin." -- Robert Samuelson