With all the news of the massive Wall Street bailout, I've heard really nothing about how this $700 billion gamble is supposed to be paid for (other than more borrowing, which is to say paid for by later). And what I have read, makes me real nervous. In a "dear colleague" letter, former chair of the Republican Study Committe Rep. Mike Pense (R-IN) pleads with colleagues (MS Word doc) to avoid raising revenue or the national debt. If Congress decides to spend nearly 1 trillion dollars on a corporate bailout, it must find budget savings to prevent that cost from being passed along to the American people. [...] [Republicans] should demand consideration of free market alternatives to massive government spending and we should fight to pay for the solution through budget cuts and reform instead of more debt or taxes. Surely Rep. Pense knows that the entire FY 2009 discretionary budget is $1.01 trillion. Of that, $350 billion funds non-defense, domestic discretionary programs. I don't know what Pense has in mind, but there simply isn't $700 billion to be found in "budget savings" that would prevent an increase in the national debt. Just a little perspective on the size of this bailout. Image by Flickr user dharma communications used under a Creative Commons license.