The New York Sun notes that those 'spending cuts' proposed by Mayor Bloomberg and echoed by the New York Times are actually spending increases. New York's budget is slated to be $43.3 Billion (that's 43,300 million), an increase of more than $1 Billion over last year's budget. The financial plan calls for increases every year through 2006 when it will reach $46.4 Billion.

It is interesting that the NY Times considers the lack of a commuter tax "unconscionable", but steep tax hikes in the wake of budget increases "a rare profile in courage."

So, how is it that the left calls a spending increase a spending cut? Simple, they had planned on increasing spending say, 6%, but now are only increasing it 3%, so they call it a cut. They did the same thing with Bush's first federal budget, when they whined about across the board cuts in federal programs. In fact, not one single program received less funding than it did the year before.

It is the same logic Tom Daschle, D-SD used last week on "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren to refer to his 3.1% increase in congressional pay as "not a raise."