Going bananas

Last week I noted President Obama's "pitchfork" comments and wondered if we were becoming a banana republic. Today the Washington Examiner invokes the term to describe the current budget process:

The House of Representatives gave opponents exactly 20 minutes to present an alternative, then gaveled the Obama measure to approval. The Senate approved it after considering a handful of amendments. But note that even before the 2010 budget was approved, this Congress had approved spending more than $1.2 trillion, or $24 billion per day. That’s $1 billion every hour since the 111^th Congress convened in January. Odds are that not even King Solomon – whose riches dazzled monarchs and tyrants throughout the ancient world – exhausted the fruit of the labor of his subjects and slaves at so breathtaking a pace as this president and this Congress. And they are doing it based on decisions most often made by Democratic leaders behind closed doors, who then run roughshod over the Republican minority. Is this really what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meant when they promised during the 2006 campaign “the most open and honest Congress ever”? And was Obama simply lying during the 2008 campaign when he promised a “net spending reduction” in Washington?

I am really tempted to start referring to Obama as El Presidente.