Rossputin.com Rational Thinking About Our World

re "Congress's Inaction Threatens Funding" (Washington Post, 12/17/06)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/16/AR2006121601087.html

The final act of the Republican-controlled Congress, or rather their final inaction by not passing spending bills, was the closest thing we have seen to fiscal responsibility in the Federal Government for years.

The idea that one bureaucracy after another will implode if they have to live on the same amount of money as the prior year is too silly to take seriously. Simply fire the heads of those agencies for incompetence if they claim that risk. The laundry list of earmarks whose demise, even if temporary, we are presumably to feel sorry for, is simply another reminder of a government and a Party that has completely lost sight of the fundamental principles of our Republic: The role of government in general and the Federal government in particular is supposed to be limited, leaving us with correspondingly limited costs.

When Republicans like Christopher Shays react to a speed bump in DC wastefulness by promising to “reverse the decision” rather than cheering the victory for taxpayers, it is the perfect reminder that the Republicans so richly deserved what just happened to them.