Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has done something many of us wish Senators would do more often -- propose to tell the truth. Lautenberg has filed an amendment to change the official name of the "Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act 2005" to the "Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act." Lautenberg said "Let's call this bill what it is -- a moral disaster." And that it certainly is. His amendment probably won't pass, but I think many of us appreciate his attempt to call the bill as it is, as opposed to trying to disguise it as an attempt at fiscal responsibility.

The Senate approved a slightly amended budget reconciliation spending bill this evening by a vote of 52 - 47. The Senate considered 20 amendments throughout the day and adopted three of them before the vote on final passage. The bill would cut $39.1 billion from entitlement spending.

Today the House Budget Committee passed a $53.9 billion reconciliation bill to cut spending. The Committee approved the bill 21-16, and it will most likely go to the floor next week. The House approved a bill even though it contains a provision - long favored by conservatives - to split in half the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco, CA.

During an event entitled "The Future America Can't Afford" last Monday, U.S. Comptroller General David Walker continued his harsh criticism of Congress' poor stewardship of the government's fiscal health. The event was sponsored by the Brookings Institution, the Heritage Foundation, and the National Press Foundation. Walker opened the event by urging Congress to reconsider the extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in light of the current fiscal environment. "We can’t afford to make all the tax cuts permanent,” Walker said. He also supported the reinstatement of true pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) rules and an automatic disclosure of the long-term costs of proposed spending and tax legislation in order to ensure an honest and transparent debate in Congress. These are both excellent ideas and should have been in place long ago in Congress. Luckily for the Senate, they will have the opportunity to enact those very budget control measures this week as Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Kent Conrad (D-ND) has offered an amendment to the budget reconciliation that would reinstitute true PAYGO rules. These rules were rejected by the narrowest of margins this past March when Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) offered them as an amendment to the original budget resolution agreement.