Amid misguided and mostly rhetorical proposals for cutting other areas of the budget to pay for Katrina relief (while continuing to cut taxes further), there is a strong and growing number of media outlets, political leaders, policy experts, and regular citizens who are demanding fiscal sanity return to the nation's capital. USA Today, the paper with the country's largest circulation, joined the ranks of those calling for a reassessment of the president's tax cuts. The paper specifically called out those lawmakers whose support of reckless tax and budget policies have caused many of the fiscal problems we have today. The paper editorialized:

The current hypocrisy is that lawmakers who participated in the spending, borrowing and tax-cutting binge that put the nation in hock are now clamoring for spending cuts to offset storm costs...Their case would also be stronger if they would be willing to revisit recent tax cuts. The first law of holes is: When you're in one, stop digging. It would be the height of irresponsibility, for instance, to cut estate taxes when natural disasters, the Iraq war and surging health care costs are exploding the deficit.

By law, the Secretary of Homeland Security must provide Congress with weekly reports detailing how FEMA is spending Katrina relief funds. The first report was sent to Congress September 15, and the second was sent yesterday. According to Rep. David Obey (D-WI) -- ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee -- the second report sent to Congress has virtually no details in it, much like the first report.

Obey said, "We asked for specific information on how they are awarding contracts and who contracts are going to. Instead of telling us who is doing what and how, we got a few spreadsheets." In order to get spending details, Obey and Senate ranking member Robert Byrd (D-WV) had specifically sent a letter to the OMB. Their requests, however, were not heeded, and their letter never answered. Instead of knowing how the money is being spent, Obey said, "We don't know what the administration is doing because they don't know what they are doing. We don't know where the nearly $16 billion FEMA's allocated went, we don't know what they're planning to do with the $44 billion they've got left."

The Senate passed two approprations bills yesterday to fund discretionary programs for FY 2006. The FY 2006 budget proposal for the Agriculture Department was voted on and passed 97-2. The bill includes $17.348 billion in discretionary spending and $82.81 billion in mandatory spending (total $100.158 billion). This amount was $506 million over the House's mark and the $597 million over the president's request. The Senate also passed their mark for the Military Quality of Life/Veterans Affairs Bill, recommending that $85.2 billion be appropriated for FY 2006. The House recommended the same amount of funding when they passed their mark in May, surpassing the President's request by $1.1 billion.

Many Republican leaders in the House and Senate are worried about the costs of rebuilding after Katrina, even though President Bush has promised, and rightly so, to devote all the funds needed to help the devastated region. Republicans who are worried about excessive deficit-financed spending are pushing for the costs will be offset (most are suggesting by cutting the budget elsewhere). To appease them, OMB Director Josh Bolten said Tuesday that the administration would consider offsets, but did not offer any details about what would be cut and by how much. As Stan Collender correctly points out (subscription required), any offsets proposed by the administration would to little, if anything, to reduce the amount Katrina relief spending will add to the deficit, and the national debt. Because President Bush refuses to even consider not extending or rolling back some of his first term tax cuts, it will be future generations who will be paying for reconstructing the Gulf Coast. The federal government is required by law to pay at least 75 percent of the cost of rebuilding public infrastructure after a disaster (1988 Stafford Act). To comply, Congress -- besides approving about $64 billion in emergency spending -- has agreed on a tax-relief bill to expand deductions this year for victims. The final bill was scored by the Joint Committee on Taxation as costing $6.1 billion over 10 years. Congress hopes these targeted tax cuts will spur employment of low-income workers on the Gulf Coast. In addition, President Bush signed three bills today to help in the aftermath of the disaster. The bills waive Pell Grant and other federal student loan requirements for displaced college students and expand Temporary Assistance to Needy Families eligibility for victims. CNN.com: House Passes Tax Breaks for Hurricane Katrina Victims