Morning Bell: Changing the Culture of Washington

Rory Cooper / April 11, 2011

This Congress was sent to Washington with a simple mandate from the American people: cut federal spending and get government under control.  Friday night’s budget compromise to avert a government shutdown embraced these principles, but also left plenty of work to be done. Congress has finally started cutting spending instead of running up the tab on future generations, and we hope the budget deal changed the culture of Washington. No longer should budgets be railroaded through Washington that increase spending and grow government. From here on out, the question should be: What can be cut?

One good thing to have come out of this process is that the debate has clearly shifted.  Though the details of the compromise remain murky, what’s clear is that the national mood is for cutting, and all the reformist ideas are coming from one side only.  We’ll see what President Obama has to say about reforming entitlements when he addresses the nation on Wednesday.  But so far, Congressional Democrats have been unwilling to make serious efforts toward cutting spending or consider much needed reforms to an entitlements regime that has grown out of all proportions, consumes the lion’s share of our federal budget and will ultimately consign America to second-class status.  They refused all but the most minuscule reductions in the 2011 budget, and their response to Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wi.) ground-breaking 2012 budget has been demagoguery. (more…)