Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute testified at a Senate Finance Hearing on Tuesday. Essentially, Edwards argued that the federal government has a "spending problem." Increased spending, he said, is almost entirely responsible for the last 5 years of high deficits. Therefore, we ought to get to the root of the problem and cut back on spending to get the deficit under contol. This is the same tack that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-NH) has taken while advocating for drastic budget cuts.

Per a report today in Congressional Quarterly, House and Senate Appropriations Committee chairs Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) told their respective leaders House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) this week: While progress is being made with ... two [out of 12] major bills, we want to reiterate our commitment to moving each of the individual appropriations subcommittee conference reports at the earliest possible date this year.

The U.S. has lost its spot atop a ranking of the world's most "competitive" economies. Why? In part, our deficit is too high. The US trade deficit is expected to top last year's record level of $717bn (£378bn; 565bn euros) in 2006, while the budget shortfall, although expected to be significantly lower than last year, is still forecast to be close to $300bn. "US competitiveness is threatened by large macroeconomic imbalances, particularly rising levels of public indebtedness associated with repeated fiscal deficits," the report said.

Today, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is having a hearing on the disclosure of tax expenditures. Not many people know it, but tax expenditures are a huge part of the federal budget. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the federal government spent $947 billion in tax expenditures just this year. And much of that enormous sum goes to programs that are ineffective, ineffecient, and highly regressive, according to the Congressional Research Service.