If the Dems won WH & both houses, could they outdo the GOP spendaholics?

"$8.6 trillion bill sent to future generations

With the 2003 tax cut and a huge prescription drug benefit, the folks in Washington ran up an unprecedented bill they'll leave to future taxpayers.

By Scott Burns

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

I'm serious.

Let's limit the evidence to two pieces of legislation enacted last year. The first was the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, passed last May. It provided a major tax cut for current taxpayers. That's not something one normally associates with a threat to liberty.

The second was the prescription drug bill. It was part of a major overhaul of Medicare passed in November. Most people don't think of prescription drugs as a threat to liberty, either.

But consider the two bills together. They work to maximize income and benefits for those living (and voting) today by sending a gigantic bill to our children and grandchildren. This is not political hyperbole. You'll be amazed at the burden our politicians dropped on the kids in a single year.

Sadly, the tax cut is a minor problem compared with the expected cost of the prescription drug benefit. In their report for 2004, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees estimate the 75-year general revenue cost of the new benefit at $8.1 trillion. (The number is on Page 108 of the Medicare report.)

Those are present-value dollars. "

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P88009.asp