Stop the Madness

From USA Today, yesterday:

Jim Bunning: Why I took a stand

‘If the Senate cannot find $10 billion to pay for a measure we all support, we will never pay for anything.’
By Jim Bunning

I have been serving the citizens of Kentucky for nearly 24 years in Washington. During that time I have been a member of both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate. I have taken thousands of votes in relation to spending the taxpayers' money. I will be the first one to admit that I have cast some bad votes during my tenure, and I wish I could have some of them back. For too long, both Republicans and Democrats have treated the taxpayers' money as a slush fund that does not ever end. At some point, the madness has to stop.

Please read on in this version of an op-ed. This could have been written 4 years ago by an anti-war Democrat protesting the off-budget, unfunded Iraq War. There is nothing specially partisan about it, no matter how Mr. Bunning was portrayed in the MSM and no matter his other actions and viewpoints.

As I understand it, Bunning was simply exercising his right to not consent to a unanimous consent resolution. So what? Anyone, of any political persuasion, should be able to do that much. If someone is against unanimous consent, why not just hold a vote?

Why is it that so many independent sorts in Congress are non-lawyers? Bernie Sanders is a carpenter and writer; Ron Paul and Tom Coburn are obstetricians; and Bunning was only one of six pitchers to hurl both a no-hitter and a perfect game.

Stop the madness.