In the ongoing race for conservatives to distance themselves from the failed Presidency of George W. Bush, there have been a lot of former Bush cheerleaders saying that Bush's spending is out of control. Newspapers are reporting that "Big Government" style spending is alienating traditional Republicans and that Bush's spending has the GOP in a deep funk.

Some progressive organizations have picked up on this rift and repeated the message: Bush's spending is out of control.

While it is true that Senate Republicans voted to raise the national debt limit to $9 trillion despite the unanimous opposition of Senate Democrats, the way this story is being talked about often evades the real reasons that Republican fiscal policy is so disastrous.

Conservative commentators are talking about the current fiscal irresponsibility as "Big Government" and "out of control spending" as if the Republican leadership is funding a welfare state. The truth of the matter is, though, that the Bush is not breaking the bank to increase funding to programs that protect Americans - the impression conservatives try to give. The current Republican fiscal fiasco is a result of three things:

[1] Irresponsible giveaways for the super-rich

[2] Failure to plan ahead or respond intelligently in Iraq and New Orleans

[3] Republican addiction to pork barrel spending

Republicans are acting fiscally irresponsible, to be sure - and they're doing so at the expense of regular Americans. The budget Bush sent to Congress contained massive cuts in programs such as Medicare, foodstamps, education, and housing for senior citizens. Republicans aren't breaking the bank to give Americans opportunities, they're looting the treasury to pay for high priced vacations and multi-million dollar lifestyles.

Expect conservatives to continue to try to spin the Republican fiscal disaster as something other than what it really is - irresponsible people who can't be trusted to use our taxes for our benefit.

Conservatives want you to continue talking about Bush's "irresponsible spending" as if it was a continuation of criticisms that they've made about past liberal administrations. They want you to equate Bush's disastrous economic policy with someone other than themselves. But Republicans aren't acting like liberals - remember the economy under Clinton? Republicans are acting like drunk teenagers who stole their father's credit cards.

Conservatives are bankrupting the nation while trying to make it look like something it isn't. The cause of the current financial dangers has nothing to do with "big government" or "out of control spending" - it has to do with basic fiscal irresponsibility and ham handed looting by a Republican controlled White House and Congress.