A second tow truck? After `stimulus' Congress in grip of spending binge.

COLUMN: In our opinion

Last week, on the heels of the $787 billion stimulus bill, President Barack Obama held a "fiscal responsibility" summit at which he outlined billions in cuts over the next decade and set a goal of cutting the annual federal deficit in half by the end of his term. But two days later, the House undercut that message by passing another $410 billion in spending for the balance of this fiscal year.

Such supplementary appropriations are routine on Capitol Hill, and routinely exceed the bounds of responsible spending. In this case, the House package will push federal fiscal 2009 spending to 8.3 percent ahead of last year, setting the stage for a $1.75 trillion federal deficit in 2010. The bill includes some 8,570 unvetted "earmarks," costing at least $3.8 billion - and as much as $7.7 billion, according to the analysis of one watchdog group.

Dismissing Republican criticism of the new spending, U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern remarked, "The same people who drove the economy into the ditch are now complaining about the size of the tow truck."

The congressman has confused his rescue vehicles.

If there is a "tow truck" in the federal spending picture, it is the stimulus package, the one emblazoned with $787 billion on the side. That legislation was an extraordinary influx of borrowed dollars for every conceivable purpose, all wrapped in more than 1,000 pages of dense prose. Few legislators, and fewer ordinary Americans, even now have any real idea of all the mischief it may contain.

At the very least, it was clear from the start that every dollar of the stimulus package would be placed directly on the American taxpayers' credit card, with the hope that a stronger economy down the road will allow us to pay ourselves back.

But contrary to Mr. McGovern's flippant remark, regular appropriations bills are not "tow trucks." They are the regular vehicles of government, and stand as Congress' chief opportunity to demonstrate even a modicum of the fiscal restraint that Mr. Obama touted at the recent White House "summit."

The hard fact is that Congress must someday, somehow begin to get spending under control, not merely hope for lower deficits at some future date.

The House failed miserably to do so this week. Now it's the Senate's turn to demonstrate it can do better.

Until and unless Congress sends the president a bill that holds the line on new spending - or the president has the courage to veto any appropriation bill that fails to address out-of-control spending growth - the legislative and executive branches will merely have doubled-down on the dubious and terrifyingly large bet placed on the stimulus bill.

And Mr. Obama's promise this week to cut annual deficits and someday reduce the national debt? Those goals will simply recede ever further into a misty and uncertain financial future.