REPUBLICANS are about to spend themselves out of office and they don't even know it.

Last week, budget talks collapsed in the House after disagreements over how much more spending to add to a federal budget that already has grown more rapidly under President Bush than under any President since FDR.

Under President Bush and a GOP Congress, federal spending has grown much more rapidly than the economy. USA Today reported last week that federal spending now accounts for 20.8 cents of every dollar generated in the American economy. That is up from 18.5 cents in 2001.

The week before last, the House Budget Committee killed a proposal to tie new spending increases to spending cuts elsewhere in the budget. Then last week the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 27-1 for a hurricane relief bill that senators had inflated by about $12 billion. The lone "no" vote was from Sen. Judd Gregg, who called the spending "out of control."

A few days after that the House budget negotiations collapsed when Republican leaders insisted on spending billions more than conservatives wanted and President Bush recommended.

The President issued another veto threat late last week in hopes of getting congressional Republicans to spend less. There is no evidence anyone in Congress took it the slightest bit seriously. And coming from FDR Jr., why would they?

Most Republicans in Washington have entirely forgotten why they were elected in the first place. The complete ineptitude of the Democrats has allowed the GOP to coast on its relative competence. That cannot last much longer. Voters are tired of seeing their tax dollars squandered on pork projects and massive new federal programs — exactly the type of waste Republicans got elected by campaigning against.

When voters send them back into the wilderness, Republicans will have no one to blame but themselves.