The NY Times rails against Bush's unleashing of Congressional spending:

Congress nearly always engages in pork-barrel spending as it leaves town for the holidays, usually to feather the nests of special interest groups responsible for the perpetuation of careers on Capitol Hill. But this year's end-of-session binge has gone way beyond pork, saddling the country with long-term obligations of mammoth proportions and inviting censure not only from the usual good-government types but also from economists who genuinely fear for the future of the economy. The Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, not given to hyperbole, warned in its most recent newsletter that the "U.S. budget is out of control." This sentiment was echoed by the bipartisan Concord Coalition, which monitors federal spending, and which called 2003 "the most irresponsible year ever" in terms of fiscal discipline. This spending comes courtesy of a Republican Congress and White House. Though the Republicans are historically the party of budget restraint and smaller government, these Republicans have presided over an orgy of tax cuts and benefit increases that, according to the Concord group, will not only boost this year's projected deficit but also add as much as $800 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years. The damage will be even greater in the following decade. Among the more prominent items are $400 billion for Medicare (this page supported the new prescription drug benefit), $300 billion in tax cuts and $22 billion in new veterans' benefits. If the energy bill had passed, which fortunately did not happen, that would have added another $23 billion to $30 billion in tax cuts, plus perhaps twice that much in newly authorized programs. And all of this comes on top of three consecutive tax cuts totaling more than $1.7 trillion over the next decade. President Bush must share responsibility. He speaks of fiscal restraint when he is on the road, but back home in Washington he seems content to let Congress do its thing. So far he has not threatened to veto a single bill because of its cost. Warren Rudman, a former senator and moderate Republican who helped found the Concord group, noted that the word "tomorrow" — as in "there is no tomorrow" — no longer exists in the Congressional vocabulary. That goes for the White House as well.