Get IBD Editorials & Cartoons Via E-mail Email To Friend | Print Never Enough By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:20 PM PT Government Spending: Did anyone really think $787 billion would be enough to quench the Democratic Congress' thirst for play money from the taxpayers? Now they want $410 billion more. ------------------------------------... Read More: Budget & Tax Policy ------------------------------------... In addition to solar water heaters for rural Puerto Rico and the Raul Alvarez Golf Course in Austin, Texas, Obama administration sources say the U.S. is also planning to relieve taxpayers of $900 million for Gaza, much of which can be expected to land in the pockets of the terrorist group Hamas, which runs the region. To a family being foreclosed on, or a businesswoman forced by tough times to close up shop, this doesn't exactly signal that Uncle Sam is in solidarity with you. The new spending bill is an 8% increase over last year and the largest discretionary spending increase since Jimmy Carter. President Bush refused to go along with what Congress was demanding for fiscal 2009, so now it has clumped the items previously denied into a $410 billion monster. The House of Representatives will vote on it this week, and the Senate is expected to follow soon after. Amid the measure's sneaky fine print is a provision to ax Washington, D.C.'s innovative school choice program. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called it "an irresponsible and shameful act on the part of the Democratic leadership in Congress, and the children of the District of Columbia deserve better." Is it any wonder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't make spending legislation available online ahead of time so Americans can scrutinize it line by line? In reaction, House Republican leaders Monday called for stepping on the brake. "At a time of record deficits," they argued, "a freeze would allow the federal government to keep functioning at current spending levels without requiring beleaguered taxpayers to pay for new spending increases." They know not to hold their breath. And we should all know by now that this latest and biggest-ever Washington fiscal binge isn't about saving the economy. The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, let the cat out of the bag when he said, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste — and what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you didn't think you could do before." In that vein, congressional Democrats are using the financial crisis to spend hundreds of billions in taxpayer money they didn't think they could spend before. As to the $900 million for Gaza "rebuilding," to be given to the U.N. and nongovernmental organizations, it will "not go to Hamas," Obama officials told the New York Times. But nearly four years ago, the Dutch U.N. commissioner-general for Gaza and the West Bank, Peter Hansen, lost his job when he revealed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.: "I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) payroll, and I don't see that as a crime." The Gaza funding requires a congressional OK, so Capitol Hill phones may soon be tied up by outraged taxpayers complaining that on top of pork they're also funding attacks on innocent Jews. One thing is for sure: Islamist terrorists won't waste what the U.S. taxpayer gives them on golf courses and solar panels.