Remember when Premier Dalton McGuinty took over from Tory Ernie Eves and couldn't stop ranting about the fiscal "disaster" of the Eves-Mike Harris years?

Remember the collective Liberal teeth-gnashing over the $5.6 billion deficit - which, in fact, wasn't really that high, but let's not quibble at this point?

Well, here's something to consider: in the last three months, the projected Ontario deficit under the Liberals ROSE by $6.2 billion - to a record $24.7 billion that's more deficit add-on than during all the years of Tory rule before McGuinty took over.

And, guess what, McGuinty's latest deficit forecast - even if it doesn't go higher, as it undoubtedly will - is almost exactly double the thenrecord deficit set by the unlamented NDP premier Bob Rae during his disastrous "Rae Days" years.

The problem with numbers of this magnitude is that they are so large they don't often compute. Everybody knows $24.7 billion is a lot of cash. But how much is it really?

Well, here's a handy guide that you can all understand: McGuinty's deficit means that every man, woman and child in Ontario is in hock by $1,891 just to carry the deficit, not counting the thousands of dollars you're paying in taxes to sustain the fattest government in Ontario history.

And this guy promised sound fiscal management. Hah!

Sure, there are fiscal problems worldwide - just as there were when Rae was wracking up his deficits - but that doesn't explain away the fact that no government in Ontario history has spent as much as this current crew.

And, as critical as the situation is - and with more taxes looming with the unholy spectre of the HST - McGuinty is still planning to go ahead with such expensive programs as the early-learning program for four-and-five year olds, which, all by itself, will adds hundreds of millions of permanent spending to his overbloated budget.

Yes, it may be a good program. But that's not the point.

You may really want that giant screen flat tv to watch the weekend football games or a new family van with all the bells and whistles. But if you can't afford it, then you learn to make do.

Not McGuinty, however. Despite his record deficit spending, he plans to continue spending. Oh yes, he has promised a review of program spending. And there was a hint about cutting program spending by five per cent across the board. But even there, he's exempting health and education spending - which represent 55 percent of the entire budget - and even if he did cut five percent from the rest of his mammoth $112.7 billion spending plan - which everybody knows won't happen - that would cut overall spending by just $2.55 billion, a lot of money, but a spit in the ocean given the overall spending of the Liberal government.

And things could get worse. Because of his record deficit, for example, DBRS, a leading Canadian credit rating agency, has already announced it is cutting Ontario's debt rating by one notch. Quite apart from the embarrassment of it all, it means that it will cost even more than it does now to service that extraordinary debt.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, apparently hoping to be taking seriously, said last week that, "We have to look at restraint." No kidding? Except, why didn't they at least look at restraint during the last several years, particularly during their early salad years, when they could have headed off the current disaster? It's a tad late now, particularly with ongoing plans at even more spending on major social programs.

It's no surprise that the opposition parties are outraged at this Liberal fiscal mismanagement, but in this case, it's more than simply partisan bombast. The Liberal government really has created a mess.

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said that if the Liberals do have a strategy for dealing with the fiscal crisis, they haven't revealed it.

"How Dalton McGuinty and Dwight Duncan could come with a straight face, announce a $25 billion deficit and no plan whatsoever to get us out of this mess is an absolute failure in leadership," said Hudak, adding that Ontarians should expect tax hikes, not spending cuts.

"There's not a frugal bone in this guy's body. There's no doubt that Dalton McGuinty is hardwired to increase your taxes and increase spending," he said. New Democrat MPP Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) said the Liberals have allowed doomsday scenarios to "fester" while leaving Ontarians in the dark.

"I'm appalled. I listened (Thursday) both in the House and when the finance minister had his news conference and he was asked repeatedly, `What is your plan, what is your plan?' And he kept saying, 'I am going to study it,'" he said.

We should all be appalled. Particularly the Liberals and those who voted them in.