How do you starve the beast by raising non-defense discretionary outlays by 18 percent and vetoing zero spending bills?
The politico's will always spend their income plus whatever they can deficit spend. That's a time honored given.
The strategy then is to lower the income figure and funnel the spending. In the case of education spending, the No child left behind bill was a Trojan Horse which will change the way schools work.
I agree, their is a problem with folks who want instant gratification and who cannot project results beyond lunch today. They haven't got a clue about long term strategy.