From Washington Post
Editorial

“Now is the time to reaffirm our roots as the party of fiscal discipline, beginning with the line-item veto,” Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) told a Republican gathering in Memphis last weekend. “Bureaucrats in Washington,” he said, are going to have to “tighten their belts,” just like families. “No more hidden earmarks. No more mortgaging our children’s future. No more bridges to nowhere. And no more runaway entitlement spending.”

We thought this man was the Senate majority leader and had been for three years, but maybe we’re mistaken — maybe there are two Bill Frists out there. Memphis Bill, wooing the GOP faithful, just hates that runaway entitlement spending. Washington’s Bill Frist, on the other hand, presided over Senate passage of the biggest increase in entitlement spending in decades, the Medicare prescription drug bill, calling it “an extraordinary day for seniors and indeed all Americans.” Just this year, when President Bush called, however halfheartedly, for entitlement cuts totaling $65 billion over the next five years, where was Mr. Frist? The budget resolution pending in the Senate — Mr. Frist’s Senate — ensures none of those cuts. Too bad Memphis Bill wasn’t around; we haven’t heard any complaints from Majority Leader Frist.

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