Now For A New Verse, Same As the Other Verse

Three items caught my eye.

One, Rand Paul is now a convert to earmarks for Kentucky (as long as the process is transparent).
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/11/08/paul-earmarks-pledg/

OK, I don't have a problem with that position.  Representative SHOULD serve their constituents by making sure that they get their fair share of federal spending.  The problem is the glaring hypocrisy of running as a small government glibertarian and then changing your position before you've even been sworn into the office you ran for.

Two, the GOP House leadership is meeting to determine what it is they will actually do now that they control the House.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44816.html

Um, shouldn't you know already?  Cutting administrative costs of the Capitol Police?  Great!  Our multi-trillion dollar debt is as good as gone!

This continues to show that while the GOP is excellent at creating narratives that win elections, they really don't seem to be concerned with governance.  Aside from opposing Democratic initiatives like HCR and stimulative spending they really haven't laid out a single concrete plan for moving America out of the recession.  All they've promised to do is re-fight the legislative battles of the past two years.

Awesome, because that was so much fun the first time...

Three, Texas is bankrupt.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/1024dntexbudgetmess.274b11d.html

The states have often been called laboratories of reform.  Wisconsin was famous in the early part of the twentieth century for reform initiatives.

Well, we're getting results in from the most conservative large state in the Union.  Guess what?  Unbridled tax cuts don't magically solve budget problems.  Can you imagine the effects of 25% cuts in state spending?

Grover Norquist famously said he wanted to shrink government to the size where he could drown it in a bathtub.  And so we starve the government of funds it needs to perform the necessary tasks of governing: education, infrastructure and the minimal welfare state to keep Americans from starving in the streets.

The GOP loves to run on tax cuts and earmark reforms and vague but angry denouncements of the ruling party.  But they haven't had a compelling new idea since Reagan and that idea has run to its logical extreme.

And so we're stuck in an endless loop.  Or more accurately a downward spiral.

UPDATE: I should have read this before I posted.  Excellent on so many levels.
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2010/11/09/the-mandate/