Republican fiscal hawks avoid Appropriations Committee like the plague
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was asked to be an appropriator and said thanks, but no thanks. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a tea party favorite, turned down a shot at Appropriations, which controls all discretionary spending. So did conservatives like Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), an ambitious newcomer who will lead the influential Republican Study Committee.
Yeah, be careful what you ask for. You get elected grandstanding about government overspending, you might actually have to … you know, put your name to specifics on where to cut government spending. And no one wants to run two years down the line on killing popular programs—and every program has some constituency that actually uses it, benefits from it, feels allegiance to it. Better to keep it all vagueish and not have to take responsibility for slashing the social net to threads. Push it off on someone else. It's the Republican way!
Too bad some Republican schmuck—not a grandstander, most likely—will have to take the fall for Bachmann and King and the rest of the fiscal poseurs. It'd be funny were it not so sadly predictable. One of the most powerful, plum committees in the House is going begging for majority members because a crew of fear-mongering loudmouths are too cowardly to take the reins.
Actually Appropriations is a good place to pick up lobbyist campaign donations. Surprised to see no one stepping up. With large campaign coffers it is still easy to defeat the mohair subsidy lobby or other special interests when you run in 2012.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
