Government spending

There is a good conversation going on over at the Badger Blog Alliance on pork barrel spending. The fact of the matter is Republicans are just playing the old Washington game-lavish the voters with gifts, and they'll return you to power. It was a game that Democrats played masterfully for 60 years. What Republicans don't understand, though, is that the rules of the game have changed. The public is getting a little more savvy on Federal Budgets, and the American sense of self sufficiency is telling them that they don't want to see out of control budgets anymore.

This is a lesson Washington Republicans should have learned in 1994 when the Republican Revolution swept control of Congress to the Republicans. They didn't, though. Take a gander at Joe Scarborough's book on that time period, Rome wasn't Burnt in a Day. The pre-existing Republican leadership did not learn a lesson from that, and they stymied a number of talented younf fiscal conservatives.

If Republicans are lucky, the current din over government spending will not turn into a large roar in time for the 2006 elections. I don't think that they will be so fortunate, though. This is a topic that has Conservatives preaching to the choir in the middle and to the Democrats in the wings on the left. They should have learned this lesson in 1994. Instead, they'll need to learn it the hard way in 2006.

Update
See also this article, The GOP's New New Deal.