Spending Spree

Allan Fram of the AP reported yesterday,

The government ran a $159 billion deficit in the 2002 fiscal year the Bush administration said Thursday, punctuating one of the federal budget's worst nosedives ever just 12 days before elections for control of Congress.

The figure was not a surprise and largely reflected an ongoing shortfall in federal revenue collections. But it was nonetheless breathtaking for its contrast with the $127 billion surplus – the second largest ever – shown by the government's books just a year before.

A $286 billion swing in just one year is nuthin'. Just wait until the $272 billion war kicks in. Then you'll see a deficit worth quivering over...