EARMARKS AND OUTLAYS: A striking graphic from Larry Kudlow. On the program, Dick Armey called earmarks the “gateway drug for overspending.”

UPDATE: Reader Tom Brosz emails: “I can’t look at that chart without wondering how much of the Republican Party’s problems stem from the departure of Newt Gingrich, who could almost be considered the conservative heart (or brain) of the Republican Congress. He left the House leadership after the 1998 elections, and you can see on that graph that the spending uptick started some time before Bush took office.” Hmm.