The Cost of A "Mandate"

Then-- On October 15th, candidate Obama said:

[T]here is no doubt that we've been living beyond our means and we're going to have to make some adjustments.

Now, what I've done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.

Now-- As summarized by Gerald Warner in the February 15th Scotland on Sunday:

There is no terminology available to express adequately the appalling irresponsibility of this naked political banditry. To have squandered a fraction of the near-$1 trillion cost of Obama's pork barrel in days of prosperity would have been more than reprehensible; to do so at a time of financial crisis is unforgivable. Obama likes to pose as the heir of Abraham Lincoln: as this shameless bribery demonstrates, he is heir only to the Chicago Democrat political machine that spawned him.

(via John Lott, Don Surber, who says, "The gilded age greed is nothing compared to the political avarice of this raid.")