It's Just Like Bush Is Back In Office!

Now that those free-spending liberals are not running congress any more, we can finally bring down the national debt. That's what the big budget wars were about last April! Finally, our children can breathe a little easier.

Hold on, let me get some asthma medicine.

It turns out the six-month spending bill Congress passed in April increased discretionary outlays through the remainder of the fiscal year by a bit over $3 billion. In other words, total direct spending will be higher by the end of September than if Congress had just set spending on autopilot for the remainder of the fiscal year back in April.

Total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be $3.2 billion higher as a result of the legislation, CBO estimates--an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by a net reduction of $4.4 billion in other spending," reads a just-released report from the Congressional Budget Office -- Congress' non-partisan scorekeeper. Analysts there conclude that increase is due in large part to the fact that the six month spending bill shifted defense spending to more immediate activities, which means the bills will come due sooner than later."

And after that, they should be able to keep the military costs down by keeping them out of the main budget and appropriating through emergency spending measures instead. Worked before! When it's emergency money, it's not from the budget! Just the taxpayers.