These guys have really taken our votes for granted, and they are way too comfortable.. Maybe they should lose the House in 2006 ... the Dems couldn't do much worse at this point, and it will be a severe wake-up call. Then we start fielding Repub candidates who REALLY are conservative...
Don't get your hopes up. The statist system that has evolved in Washington is so big and so deeply entrenched that there is no way to reform it. It has an inertia that no group of people can consciously control or keep track of. Things will likely go on as they are, until either the government dissolves after going completely bankrupt or some sort of populist strongman comes on the scene promising to eliminate corruption while holding the union together. Because of the way we keep strengthening the executive branch, all that is needed is for a charismatic opportunist to take advantage of an economic downturn or a national humiliation.
There can be no retrieving what is lost. The form of constitutionally limited government envisioned by the Founding Father is a historic relic, never to return as it was. Eventually something new will come into being that will preserve the principle of limited government and checks and balances.