What is discretionary spending? Well, in theory, it's spending that Congress should be able raise and lower with relatively greater ease than the other kind of spending, called mandatory spending. Discretionary programs' importance tends to change. Defense spending, for example, is discretionary. During war, we need to spend a great deal on defense; during peace, much less.

CQ Alerts us that: House-Senate conferees agreed on a $459.3 billion Defense spending measure for fiscal 2008 (HR 3222) that includes a continuing resolution to temporarily fund all government operations after Nov. 16 but does not include funds for military operations in Iraq. November 6, 2007 House Senate Conf. Cmte. President Cmte. Floor $ Agriculture 18.8 18.7 $ Commerce-Justice- Science 53.6 54.6 54.6 Defense 459.6 459.6 459.6 459.3 $ Energy & Water 31.6 32.3 Financial Services 21.4 21.8 $ Homeland Security 36.3

On Oct. 31, President Bush signed the seven-year extension of the state and local Internet access tax moratorium, an issue we've written about here, here, and originally here. In that original blog, Cybertax: A Digital Divide of Historic Proportions, we quoted Mark Murphy, Fiscal Policy Analyst , Department of Research and Collective Bargaining Services of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), as follows:

With the departure of Tom DeLay and his jailed associates, Congressional Republicans have become the guardians of fair legislative process, or so they would have you believe. Take just about any issue where they have an unpopular stance, and it's almost guaranteed that they will finger-wag and bray about "playing politics" and so on.