More spending

Up, up and away:

Overall, the federal government spent $2.2 trillion in 2004, an increase of 5 percent from 2003. The growth was slower than the 6 percent to 8 percent increases seen over the past several years, officials say. (Inflation during fiscal 2004 was about 2.32 percent.)

Nearly half of the 2004 spending -- more than $1 trillion -- was on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, popular entitlement programs whose costs are growing annually.

Medicare, in particular, is about to get a lot more expensive. On Jan. 1, the federal health insurance program for the elderly began to cover some prescription drug costs for as many as 41 million eligible participants. The government expects to spend about $724 billion on the benefit over the next 10 years.

Other costs loom, too. The leading edge of the baby-boom generation turns 60 this year. At 62, some of them will decide to start collecting their Social Security benefits, fueling big increases in the cost of that very popular but fiscally uncertain program.

So Social Security is set to start bleeding money but hey, don't reform it or anything. Meanwhile Bush's response to escalating Medicare costs is to, wait for it...add on another entitlement program. Brilliant.

You know, a few years ago I -- in a bout of mental self-mutilation -- read a Rolling Stone interview with Paul Krugman. Basically he said that Bush's grand secret evil scheme was to cut taxes in order to starve the government of revenue so that we'd have to trim it down to zilch. Um, yeah.

Update: Can't find that interview, but I did find this nugget from 2003:

"This is not just a recession," Krugman says. "Not just an economic challenge. We've gone off the rails."

Hyperbole, irrationality, delusion...no wonder he makes his home on the New York Times op/ed page along with intellectual powerhouses Maureen Dowd and Bob Herbert. Meanwhile, back in the real world...