LA Times article "Congress again averts a federal shutdown" (March 18, 2011) shares an intriguing quote from the junior senator of Alaska.
After outlining the legal l0g-rolling of the current Congress to prevent a government shutdown while cutting wasteful spending, the writer reports that the Senate agreed to another three-week stopgap measure to finance government operations so that both chambers could hammer out a long-term compromise balancing cuts with preserving precious government largess.
Before responding to Senator Begich, a Democrat whose nonsensical criticism is understandable, I would like to challenge Senator John Kyl's (R-Arizona) justification for passing the stopgap measure. Because the measure cuts $10 billion dollars of spending (despite the Republican pledge to cut at least $100 billion), Kyl observed: "All in all, a good day's work."
Weeks of haggling produces $10 billion in cuts, and that is a "good day's work"? Either the standard of excellence is so paltry, or the integrity of fiscal conservatives is petty, but for a Republican to call such a slender cut from the budget "good work" in the face of trillion-dollar deficits: that is simply laughable.
Now, Senator Begich's comment on the continued stalling on long-term budget legislation:
"This is no way to run the country."
Chiding colleagues for not resolving the fiscal wars among themselves, Begich does not seem to realize that it was the very lack of wrangling, debate, and challenge which permitted Congressmen to slip in earmarks, avoid entitlement reform, and siphon off money from the American tax-payer, money which year after year becomes increasingly more difficult to borrow from international investors. No, Senator Begich, the financial irresponsibility of you and your colleagues in Congress is certainly no way to run the United States (unless you want this country to ride on the road to ruin). The short-term political expediencies of you and your colleagues have dumped this nation's financial future into such dire straits, that trimming the budget by a mere $10 billion dollars leads some legislators to pat themselves on the back.
Shame on the blind profligacy of the United States Congress. Kudos to those legislators rejecting these puny stopgap measures, who demand real budget reform!