It was Democrats who generated the programs that currently devour half the Federal Budget each year, dwarfing defense and all the other spending programs. But that's okay, because that trillion dollars a year--five times the worst-case total cost of an Iraq war each and every year--is going for GOOD things.

Sorry. Just slipped out. Truth be told, anyone who tries to blame our recent spending orgy (only a part of which has anything at all to do with national security) on one party or the other exclusively, is full of shit. Everybody in Washington is attending this particular party, and filling their pockets from the canape table.

As others have pointed out, the huge tax windfall from the stock bubble had a great deal to do with the surplus too, but that doesn't help the old agenda, does it?

I suppose your solution would be to keep the spending frenzy going and raise taxes. That'll do worlds of good for the economy, won't it?