By Staff
After six years of "conservatives" running Congress and the White House, let's hope the "liberals" can again show more fiscal restraint.
The Republicans have six straight budget deficits and $3 trillion added to the federal debt to show for their reign.
Democrats' first major bills to pass the U.S. House took aim at accepting gifts from lobbyists and at games-playing with the federal budget.
Adopted Jan. 5, the "pay-go" budget rule requires lawmakers to demonstrate how they will pay for any new tax cut or expansion of entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.
That seems reasonable.
It's also how congressional budgeting was conducted from 1990 to 2002.
And that period of fiscal restraint produced four consecutive budget surpluses.
Republicans, however, denounced the rule as the tax-and-spend liberals' scheme to raise taxes or to block extensions of President Bush's tax cuts.
How ironic, because the president's father, George H.W. Bush, negotiated the original pay-go law.
It would only result in more taxes if lawmakers propose new entitlements without offsetting them with budget cuts.
It would only impede more tax cuts if they worsen the federal deficit.
Republicans should get on board and enhance their esteem instead of resisting a rejuvenated Congress.