It is not rhetoric to say that once government programs are created, it is nearly impossible to keep them from expanding. Take the debate over the debt ceiling. Liberals are so married to continued government growth and control that here is the “deal” Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is reportedly getting ready to offer today. Pure gimmick. From the Washington Post:

 

The aide declined to say what else the package might contain. But people familiar with the months-long search for a debt-reduction compromise said that hitting such a large target without raising taxes or cutting entitlement programs would probably require Reid to rely heavily on savings from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — a figure budget analysts said could easily amount to more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

Counting money not spent on wars that the nation is already planning to end is widely viewed as a budget gimmick, and House GOP leaders have been reluctant to include it as savings. But it has a political advantage because it was included in the budget blueprint House Republicans adopted this spring.