Boston Globe
by Thomas Oliphant

11/08/05

Only in a country governed by the triumvirate of George Bush, Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert could the following set of events unfold with absurd smoothness. The Senate narrowly approves a 'deficit reduction' bill as part of a larger package that will increase the deficit. That was last week. The House narrowly approves its own Draconian 'deficit reduction' bill as part of a larger package that will increase the deficit. That is likely to be this week, barring a last-minute revolt of moderate congressmen. The final version of the legislation ... jettisons the sensible portions of the Senate bill and adds the worst of the House measure. ... President Bush then approves the result, and the country is again another day older and deeper in debt. This kind of government -- you might call it the institutionalization of irresponsibility -- is what the vast majority of Americans, who tell pollsters by large margins that the country is headed in the wrong direction and that both the president and Congress are not doing their jobs well, reject. But they are getting it anyway...

http://tinyurl.com/bekyr


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp