Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has seized on a fantastic statistic to help Americans understand the enormity of the money being spent by Congress since President Obama started signing bills:

“In just 50 days, Congress has voted to spend about $1.2 trillion between the Stimulus and the Omnibus,” McConnell says. “To put that in perspective, that’s about $24 billion a day, or about $1 billion an hour—most of it borrowed. There’s simply no question: government spending has spun out of control.”

The math: 50 days times 24 hours equals 1,200 hours. 1,200 times 1 billion equals 1.2 trillion (a thousand billions is a trillion).

His math is sound, and powerful. There is a rub, however.

It’s tough to stand for fiscal responsibility when you ask for over $51 billion in earmarks, putting you in the top ten most earmarkers in the Senate. If it were just Mitch, it would just be hypocritical, but 6 of the top ten earmarkers were Republicans.

It’s like a bunch of drunk preachers decrying the sins of the bottle. There might be some sober men of the colth, but no one notices them because of the drunks.

I appreciate the increased focus on spending. I just wish we had a credible party to talk about it. As I said on my RFC Radio show, there is a trust bank account. You can make deposits and you can make withdrawals. Right now, the Republicans are way overdrawn. You want trust again, you have to make some deposits. When the Congressional Republicans all voted against the stimulus, that was a big deposit. But it didn’t bring the party out of the hole they created.

You can’t just talk the talk, Mitch. Get your house in order, then start complaining about the neighbors.

Related posts:

• “8,570 earmarks worth about $7.7 billion”
• The Gall of the GOP
• Arlen Specter Says He’s Trying to Lead Republican Party
• Pelosi: "I didn’t come here to be bipartisan."
• Cato Institute and FREDeralism