Appalling

As the Republican house spends its final days passing a meaningless measure on abortion, this Washington Times opinion piece points out a particularly appalling fact:

If any other evidence were needed to confirm Republican futility on the budget front this year, consider the fact that 2006 will be the first year in history that a Congress in which one party controlled both the House and the Senate failed to pass a budget resolution.

I think that is all the evidence we need to confirm Republican ineptitude on just about every front. We came to power in 1994 with an agenda to reform government, rein in federal spending, and to instill in Washington an institutional belief in balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility.

Ironically, it was because of our success that we failed so badly. We elected majorities to both houses and reclaimed the White House. In so doing, we abandoned our fiscal priorities, hocked our children’s future, and spent well beyond our means while promoting a divisive agenda that failed miserably to keep us in power.

It is appropriate that the House today will consider the “fetal pain” bill as one if its last actions. The bill – a measure requiring abortion providers to inform patients that a fetus feels pain – will likely pass the House, and go no further. The Senate will not take it up before they adjourn and and the Senate, under Democrat control, would be more inclined to handle live plague cultures than to pick up that bill in the 110th.

So the GOP’s pandering to the religious base, which has driven the party from power and alienated much of the American middle, is complete. With the completion of this ineffective fundamentalist Christian agenda goes our generation’s chance to right what is fundamentally wrong with Washington.

I sincerely hope the so-con wing of the party is happy with every gift they have received in the past six years, because their insistence on radical social policies to appease their narrow minority have permanently hampered sensible fiscal policies that would have benefited all.

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