More news that this year's budget underfunds important programs. This time, it's the Millenium Challenge program, which provides funding to foster the development of poor countries. WASHINGTON -- President Bush's signature foreign-assistance program is likely to run out of money this year, leaving in the lurch several poor countries that have labored to meet its strict eligibility standards, according to aid officials. Mr. Bush introduced the Millennium Challenge program in 2002 as a new approach to fix the perceived failures of overseas-development assistance.

More absurdity at GSA... The chief of the U.S. General Services Administration attempted to give a no-bid contract to a company founded and operated by a longtime friend, sidestepping federal laws and regulations, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post. Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan, a former government contractor appointed by President Bush, personally signed the deal to pay a division of her friend's public relations firm $20,000 for a 24-page report promoting the GSA's use of minority- and woman-owned businesses, the documents show.

EJ Dionne's column today, as usual, is good, but one thing kinda bugged me: No. 1: Extending President Bush's tax cuts to eternity will make the long-term problem much worse. Hint No. 2: The hardest part will be how -- simultaneously -- to meet the fiscal need to rein in health costs and the social need to get health insurance to everyone. Hint No. 3: Most Democrats don't like to talk about it, but somebody's taxes are going to have to go up. He sets up the "social need" for universal health insurance in tension to the "fiscal need" to rein in health costs, but I'm not so sure that's the right relationship. As I tried to write yesterday, there's some evidence that a greater role for the government would help bring down health care costs across all sectors in the long term. Anyway, I confess my ignorance of the mechanisms involved here. But doesn't this seem like the perfect silo-crossing issue? It'd be nice if health care wonks helped us ignorant budget wonks understand this aspect of universal coverage better. The best I can do is put Jacob Hacker's summary of the argument for cost-containment after the jump.

Ben Bernanke gave testimony on increasing entitlement program costs today. There was one key point I wanted to discuss: Addressing the country's fiscal problems will take persistence and a willingness to make difficult choices. In the end, the fundamental decision that the Congress, the Administration, and the American people must confront is how large a share of the nation's economic resources to devote to federal government programs, including transfer programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.