Free Republic

The controversial budget-reconciliation and spending package expected to hit the House floor this week will arrive with far less fanfare than other recent hard-fought bills that Republicans have pushed to passage. President Bush and big business are not going all out to pass the budget bill, contrasting with the lobbying blitz on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) earlier this year and the Medicare drug measure in 2003. Instead, the reconciliation-spending package is beset by unanimous opposition from House Democrats, griping from certain House Republicans and near silence from both the business and ideologically conservative special interest groups inside...

When I consider Hurricane Katrina and its tragic aftermath, the ancient parable comes to mind: “And the rains descended, and the flood came, and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell with a great crash.” For most American families, when a tree falls on your house, first you tend to the wounded, you start the clean up, and then you figure out how you are going to pay for it. In recent days, Congress has funded the relief and recovery from Hurricane Katrina by speeding more than $60 billion to FEMA and other agencies involved in...

Seeing the words "smart" and "government" in the same sentence is about as common as seeing the word "humble" used to describe Donald Trump. It just doesn't happen. On the contrary, watching government in action is often a lesson in stupidity. Given the opportunity to accomplish a task, government will invariably spend more money, waste more time, and point more fingers than other possible solutions. In the aftermath of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, America saw all levels of government at their worst: layers of bureaucratic chaos leading to pointless delays, partisan posturing rather than constructive debate, and a...

Last week we suggested that cancellation of $25 billion in pork projects -- euphemistically known as "earmarks" -- in the recently passed Highway Bill would be a good first step to offset some of the cost of rebuilding the infrastructure in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast. The idea of a pork-for-reconstruction swap had already been denounced as "moronic" by a spokesman for Don Young of Alaska, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee and proud father of the now-infamous $223 million "bridge to nowhere" near Ketchikan. Since then the White House and Congressional Republican leadership have been acting as...