Byron York has an interesting column today claiming that, “The deficits are largely the result not of entitlements but of an explosion in spending related to the economic downturn and the rise of Democrats to power in Washington.” This is a provocative claim. How does Byron defend it?

He starts by changing the definition of entitlement program. For everyone else in Washington, entitlements are programs whose annual spending levels are set by their own governing statutes and are therefore not dependent on appropriation bills for funding. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the biggest three entitlement programs. But Byron includes Medicaid’s recent $86 billion spending increase with “spending related to the economic downturn.”