Are there any real fiscal Republicans left in the Congress? Discretionary spending continues to rise. Wouldn't mind Bush finally dusting off that veto pen for something. Anything.

Penner said the lapse in spending restraint occurred in two stages. First came large, projected budget surpluses at the end of the Clinton administration. Discretionary spending rose 0.9 percent in 1998, then 3.6 percent in 1999 and 7.5 percent in 2000. The projected surpluses have disappeared into a flood of red ink, but the 2001 terrorist attacks, coupled with a recession that year, eliminated any sense of restraint beyond rhetoric, Penner said.

This seems to prove the theory pushed forward by tax-cutters: if government has the money, government will spend the money. The problem is, now that the surpluses are gone, nobody in Washington has gotten a clue.

Marshall noted that after Republicans took control of Congress in the 1994 elections, discretionary spending actually fell, by 1.6 percent between 1994 and 1996.

So what happened between then and now? Newt retired in 1998.