sacbee.com — Opinion — Editorial: Spend now, pay when?

Once upon a time, if a Democrat told a Republican that the federal government needed to institute a big new spending program to deal with some pressing social problem, the response would be a steely glare and a pointed question: And how exactly do you propose to pay for that, Mr. Liberal?

No more. On the evidence of the expensive energy and Medicare prescription drug bills that Republicans have written and are poised, with President Bush’s enthusiastic support, to push through Congress, the Republican Party has gone through the political equivalent of a sex change operation. Donning the garb of the Democrats they once berated, Republicans have become the party of spend now, pay someday. …

There used to be a political party that would stand against such shortsighted action. It advanced the wisdom that wanting something carried with it the moral obligation to pay for it.

Too bad for America’s future that we don’t have such a party today.