On March 1, President Bush nominated Michael Baroody to be a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Many have criticized the nomination because of Baroody's record of opposing safety regulation in his role as a lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Yesterday, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) sent a letter to President Bush asking him to withdraw the nomination. In the letter, the Senators really brought their A-game, citing statutory criteria for the qualifications of a CPSC commissioner:

Earlier today, the House Judiciary Committee approved two lobbying reform bills — The Lobbying Transparency Act (H.R. 2317) and The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (H.R. 2316). A proposed amendment offered by Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) on grassroots lobbying disclosure, however, was rejected by the Committee. The Committee approved H.R. 2316 after Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) successfully added a Manager's amendment, which resulted in three key changes to the bill:

1. Stripped from the bill the proposed extension of the revolving door ban from one to two years;

As expected, Congress adopted a budget resolution for FY 2008 this afternoon. The House voted 214-209, with 13 Democrats crossing sides to oppose it. The Senate margin was larger, 52-40; Maine Sens. Collins (R) and Snowe (R) were the only GOP defectors. Seven Republicans and one Democrats did not vote.

I wanted to revisit a post I did on contracting earlier this week. The point I was trying to make is that it's often assumed that everything government can do, the market can do better. So if it's feasible to outsource something, you should do it, because you'll save the taxpayer money. So why exactly is the market superior? Well, I went digging through one of my favorite books from college- Charles Lindblom's The Market System. Here's what he says: