Ryan Takes the Point on Fiscal Reform

[Geee]

American Spectator:

With the national debt now topping $14 trillion, up from $13 trillion just seven months ago, and a Gallup poll revealing the outgoing Democratic Congress to have among the lowest average approval ratings recorded in the last two decades, it is a great relief to hear that incoming House Republicans are planning to cut funding of their legislative offices by 5 percent. They are also cutting the House Appropriations Committee budget by 9 percent. Both actions are part of new House Speaker John A. Boehner's commitment to reduce $35 million from Congress's very own administrative budget.

All this comes in addition to the GOP's ban on federal earmarks and an overall reduction in the number of House appropriators from 60 committee members to 50. A good start, as they say.

But there is more. The House Republicans are going to enact new rules "to make it harder to tax and spend," writes the Wall Street Journal editorial. The GOP will, among other things, replace the Democrats' often ignored "paygo" approach with a "cut as you go" requirement in which increases in mandatory spending -- for new and existing entitlements -- must be matched by spending cuts in an equal or greater amount elsewhere in the budget.

Another encouraging aspect of the new rules package is the empowerment of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the new Budget Committee Chairman, the point on budget reform, to impose budget limits, on his own, for the current fiscal year.