Unnecessary linkage

I must say I'm a little confused. Via Kevin, there are bloggers who suggest that Bush's call for massive spending with no matching reduction in other expenditures, which would ratchet up the budget deficit even higher is the "Democrat" thing to do.

Maybe I'm misreading what they are trying to say. And Kevin's own postscript suggests it's just smoke and mirrors for the administration to try all the crazy conservative things they'd love to do but never be able to get away with without a major disaster to use for political cover (see Act, Patriot).

But my problem is not whether or not Bush will follow a Democratic or Republican line of thought (there's little reason to trust the guy until he earns it back, right?), but instead the idea that massive spending with no offset is a Democratic thing to do.

As best I remember, the last time a balanced budget was signed, it was by a Democrat in the White House. Reagan almost pioneered high deficit spending, and Bush's father wasn't much better. It would seem instead that massive spending with no eye for the bottom line would be a very Republican thing to do.

If this is just an attempt to link the Democrats and the concept of spending on the relief effort, I guess it might work. And no one other than a select few bloggers are really going to run with this idea for much longer. But to me, painting the Democrats are the party of fiscal irresponsibility seems like a bad thing to do. Because I would hate for the phrase "spending like a Democrat" to gain voice in the media and take on negative connotations.