Broder, Again

There's a reason why David Broder has the somewhat unofficial title "Dean of the Punditocracy" (at least I call him that, others may disagree entirely). Sometimes he just gets it right, and you'd expect that after so many years of observing Washington at its finest.

Today's another one of those days. In "A Price To Be Paid For Folly," Broder reminds us all that even as the bills start to come due for Katrina and Congress shells out the dough (and rightly so), the nation's fiscal house is hardly in order: "For all the deserved criticism the Bush administration has received for its tardy and ragged response to the storm's ravages on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the long-term costs to the nation of the reckless disregard both the president and Congress have shown toward paying the nation's bills may be even greater," Broder writes, noting later that while New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast will be rebuilt and recover, "our children and grandchildren will pay a continuing price for the refusal of our leaders to face the reality of an out-of-control budget."

Broder's right. As I've been harping about for months, the government - and particular blame must lie with the Republican leadership in the House and Senate as well as with the guy who sits in that weird-shaped office down the road - doesn't seem to understand that tax cuts, combined with huge spending increases and massive amounts of pork-barrelling, doesn't make good budgetary sense.

"The question," Broder writes, is whether the newly-necessary Katrina expenditures "will force the president and congressional Republicans to suspend their obsessive drive to reduce the revenue base of the federal government, or whether they will finally start paying the bills their government is incurring." He doesn't mention explictly the less pleasant (but more likely) alternative, that neither of those things will occur, but says "It is hard to be optimistic ... This president may not literally be incapable of reversing directions, but we have yet to see him do that on any significant matter."

This cannot continue indefinitely. When will our leaders realize that?