JACOB SULLUM ON the new era of irresponsibility. “We don’t have a moment to spare, but evidently we have $1 trillion.” Or can borrow it, which is exactly the same thing!

Last October, while campaigning in Toledo, Barack Obama called for “a new ethic of responsibility.” The nation’s economic troubles, he said, occurred partly because “everyone was living beyond their means,” including politicians who “spent money they didn’t have.” In his inaugural address last month, Obama regretted “our collective failure to make hard choices” and heralded “a new era of responsibility.”

Now President Obama, as one of his first priorities, is pushing a gargantuan “stimulus” plan that will add around $1 trillion to the national debt and cannot possibly work as advertised. Welcome to the new era of responsibility.

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