Republican senator has epiphany, now wants ‘caution’ and ‘restraint’ in spending

From Bloomberg:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wants to slow consideration of the economic stimulus package Democrats are drafting, warning that the measure sought by President-elect Barack Obama invites wasteful spending.

“A trillion-dollar spending bill would be the largest spending bill in the history of our country at a time when our national debt is already the largest in history,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement. “As a result, it will require tough scrutiny and oversight. Taxpayers, already stretched to the limit, deserve nothing less.”

Caution… restraint… those are very novel concepts in Congress. I wonder where Mitch McConnell has been for the last eight years. That’s right… he was Republican leader for the last two years and majority whip for the four years before that and has consistently and unreservedly supported the Republican president of the last eight years who set an incredible example of spending “caution” and “restraint” …

(CBSNews.com) — With no fanfare and little notice, the national debt has grown by more than $4 trillion during George W. Bush’s presidency.

It’s the biggest increase under any president in U.S history.

On the day President Bush took office, the national debt stood at $5.727 trillion. The latest number from the Treasury Department shows the national debt now stands at more than $9.849 trillion. That’s a 71.9 percent increase on Mr. Bush’s watch.

And that story doesn’t even account for the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars that’s been spent since as party of this administration’s haphazardly executed economic bailout plan.

Again, I ask, where was Mitch McConnell and his “fiscally conservative” Republican colleagues when his president was nearly doubling the national debt in his administration alone. But, then again, Republican presidents haven’t had the best track record when it comes to “caution” and “restraint” in spending or fiscal responsibility…

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So, why is it that Mitch McConnell all of a sudden cares about “caution” and “restraint” in spending now that a new president — a Democratic president — is coming into office? Because it’s about partisan politics, not principle. While I would agree that we need “caution” and “restraint,” Mitch McConnell has no room to talk about fiscal responsibility. His actions have spoken volumes more than his rhetorically empty words.