Congress behaves in suspiciously conservative manner (for once)

From master satirist Scott Ott. Sure, it's light years from the dream of true constitutionally-limited government, but it's nice to see that the House leadership managed to yank itself back from the fiscal precipice called Katrina Recovery (thanks in no small part to the bold efforts of congressmen like Mike Pence of Indiana):

(2005-10-17) -- Congressional Republicans today announced a plan to make real spending cuts in the fiscal 2006 budget, as part of a new approach that one House Republican called a 'conservative' agenda.

"The GOP transition from 'the party of compassionate deficits', to one that advocates lean federal budgets and local solutions to local problems could take years," according to an unnamed legislative aide, "but it's a radical experiment that's worth a shot."

Some Republicans immediately bristled at the new term 'conservative' because it suggests a stubborn reluctance to create generous new entitlement programs, like the Medicare prescription drug benefit, with taxpayer dollars.

"How in the world are we going to buy votes if we can't use the voters' money to do so?" said one seven-term Congressional veteran. "You start throwing that word 'conservative' around, and people will expect us to reduce spending, focus on national defense and get the government off the backs of small businesses. Ordinary Republicans will wonder what happened to the party of Lincoln...you know, Lincoln Chafee."