True or False: Whether the laws of the United States governing the cooling-off period (currently one year) restrictions for former Congressional staffers to lobby their erstwhile offices apply depends upon the salary of these staffers. Answer: True (per Public Law 101-194). Now -- and no cheating -- staffers are exempt from these revolving door restrictions if they:

• A. Were at no point one of the top-two paid staffers in a Congressional office
• B. Received a total of $200,000 or more during their tenure as Congressional staffers

Congress may make a move to strip language that would keep states from privatizing the provision of food stamps. The anti-privatization language, which would go in the Farm Bill, could be struck down despite the massive failure of a scheme to privatize the food stamp system in Texas. Don't the privatizers get it? Government just does things like this better.

I stumbled across a copy of the president's weekly radio address this morning and, for the life of me, can't figure out what Mr. Bush is smoking. The address summarized Bush's record on fiscal policy, stating outrageous claims like the president's tax cuts were a success, that Bush has enacted fiscal discipline in Washington, and that government spending imperils economic growth. These statements are all pretty much wrong, but the worst part of the speech was this: Over the past three years, we have met the urgent needs of our Nation while holding the growth of annual domestic spending close to one percent - well below the rate of inflation...By keeping taxes low and restraining Federal spending, we can meet my plan to have a balanced budget by 2012. Let's take a look at how well the president has met the urgent needs of our nation. Just recently, we've come across the following reports:

• New Hampshire may have to cut food and other assistance for the elderly;
• Hunger in America could be significantly curtailed if we'd only invest a little more;
• Backdoor cuts to Medicaid have drawn the ire of state Medicaid directors. Michigan is one state that has cut its Medicaid program;
• Delays and insufficient funding in the FY 06 spending bills threatened cuts to veterans health care, the Social Security Administration, the Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Small Business Administration, the FBI and DEA, Amtrak, and low-income housing programs - all of which have been operating on shoestring budgets over the past several years;
• The Walter Reed scandals appear to be a budget issue at its core with privatization of government services pursued to save money over delivering quality services;
• A growing number of sinkholes are increasingly becoming a problem around the country - mostly due to underfunded or neglected federal wastewater management programs;
• The Food and Drug Administration has largely blamed budget cuts and a lack of resources for their poor responses to recent food safety problems;
• The Center for Disease Control stated last week they lacked funding to put a plan in place to respond to a large tuberculosis outbreak;
• The president's own Millennium Challenge program, which provides funding to foster the development of poor countries, was running $400 million to $1 billion behind in January, 2007;
• Even funding for Iraq reconstruction has been insufficient and mismanaged;

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg of unmet needs around the country the president doesn't even seem to be aware of. What's more, the president has presided over the largest increase in the national debt in history, as it has increased from $5.95 trillion to close to $9 trillion during his presidency. At this point, it's a little late for him to be shooting for a balanced budget in 2012 - 3 years after he leaves the White House. I'm afraid the damage has already been done.

Rep. David Obey and the bipartisan House leadership deserve credit for arriving at an agreement yesterday regarding earmark procedures for most of the FY 2008 spending bills to come before the House floor over the next several weeks and months, providing that members will have the opportunity to review and amend such earmarks as they deem fit.