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Some conservatives are mocking Rep. Pelosi's sudden attempt to become fiscally responsible, but I think we should encourage it. According to the WSJ article:

If she becomes speaker in the next Congress, she says, she would press to severely reduce earmarks. "Personally, myself, I'd get rid of all of them," she says. "None of them is worth the skepticism, the cynicism the public has... and the fiscal irresponsibility of it."

And:

"Not every single dollar" would go to the Treasury, she said, "but I hope that...we would use the rollback of the tax cuts" to address the deficit since "it is the biggest drain...on the next generation."

Furthermore:

Ms. Pelosi says she is committed to a "pay-as-you-go" budget approach that would require any expansion of federal benefits to be offset by spending reductions elsewhere or new taxes.

With the exception of rolling back the tax cuts, those are all good ideas. Let Pelosi and the Democrats run with this. If they get some traction among the electorate with this issue, the GOP will have to respond in kind. The GOP may be able to dis' a good portion of their base on the spending issue, but they can't afford to dis' both their base and the middle.

Most elections are about which party can outspend the other. I'd be all too happy to have an election that is about which party can "out-cut-spending" the other.

topics:
Taxes, Earmarks