GOP budget

Via the Club for Growth blog I noticed that the Republicans have released their own alternative budget. Some highlights:

1. It doesn't raise taxes (Dems want to raise taxes by $400b over 5 years)
2. It cuts $279 billion from mandatory spending (Dems cut $0)
3. It puts a hard freeze on non-defense discretionary spending (Dems increase $26b)
4. It doesn't raid the Social Security Trust Fund (the Dem budget does)

In the past this kind of thing probably would have gotten my pulse racing, illustrating the clear differences between the Dems and the GOP. But not now. Because really, if the GOP was in power -- as they were so recently -- this thing would be so stuffed with pork it would be suffering from a bad case of trichinosis. Principles are something the Republicans only seem to have when they are out of power, as John Fund notes:

In the Bush years, the Republican Congress has spent like liberals. Federal spending is now $23,000 per household, a $7,000 increase in the past five years. There has been an annual 7.7% increase in nondefense discretionary spending, and the number of earmarks is up 57%.

So, to quote Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, screw them.