The Revolt of the Fiscalists, Continued...

Kevin Hassett draws a line in the sand: unless Judd Gregg's resurrection of Gramm-Rudman--Gregg's Stop Over-Spending bill--becomes law before congress recesses at the end of September, Hassett says there is no reason for him or any other conservative to vote for this bunch of Republicans ever again:

AEI - Short Publications: Republicans Have Last, Best Chance to Limit Pork. By Kevin A. Hassett: For the past six years, the federal government has spent with more reckless abandon than a drunk with a platinum credit card. Between the 2000 and 2005 fiscal years, real spending increased an astonishing $415 billion, a 23 percent increase. Under the latest projections, by 2015 government outlays will be almost $2 trillion more than when President George W. Bush took office....

So what can they do about it?

In Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus sailed past the sirens, he had his crew put wax in their ears and lashed him to the mast so he could listen to the song without being lured to his doom. In the past, politicians have enacted budget rules... 1985... Gramm-Rudman-Hollings... 1990... Budget Enforcement Act... pay-as-you-go rules... discretionary spending caps. These provisions were allowed to expire in 2002.

Did those budget rules work?... James Poterba concluded that budget rules do work. While Congress could in principle ignore budget rules, in practice they have tended not to do so, which have historically led to smaller deficits....

The most important feature of [Judd Gregg's] bill is that it gives the president a line-item veto.... Why would any senator or representative take all the negative publicity about a ``bridge to nowhere'' if the president is going to nix it? After that, the bill establishes a goal of reducing the deficit to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product.... Should Congress be unable to control itself... the bill would require that virtually all spending be reduced across the board.

The bill addresses the profusion of emergency spending bills by capping emergency spending at a low level....

[S]ome of his colleagues might not be rejoicing about his skillful budget play. The problem is, Gregg may force the hand of big government Republicans, and put them on the record before the next election.... Should these reforms become law, then Republicans may yet convince voters to continue to support them.

But if, because of their appetite for pork, they torpedo these reforms, then it is hard to imagine why any conservative would support this particular cast of characters in November -- or ever again, for that matter.