Lie As You Go

Democrats and their accomplices in the media are savaging the character of Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning for holding up $10 billion worth of new unemployment benefits and highway construction. Is Bunning just another heartless Republican miser? No, he is simply demading that the Senate follow its own pay-as-you-go rule. If you want to spend on something, now you have to get the money from somewhere else.

Bunning is for the spending, as long as it's paid for. He says the cash should come from funds already appropriated for the "stimulus" package rather than be created ex nihilo (to be paid by taxpayers later). Democrats have already rejected this approach, apparently keeping the "stimulus" funds around for maximum advantage this November.

For this modest stab at fiscal sanity, Bunning's character and mental state are receiving flak from all sides, even from faint-hearted Republicans, who perhaps fear the power of Democrat hypocrisy.

Yes, hypocrisy. It is instructive to recall President Obama's February 13 "Pay as You Go" address, extolling the need for pay-as-you-go's discipline on Congress (though he conveniently forgot to mention his own profligacy). Before Bunning gets run out of town on a rail and the Republicans cave, perhaps fearing another government shutdown-style debacle, take a few minutes to listen to the president.