Breaking the Pork Addiction Cycle

George Will, who has really been on a roll lately, speaks today about the "Dawnists" - a group of people who want to steer Republicans away from pork barrel spending and the sins of the lobbyists.

Those [the Dawnists] are people who believe that, given good intentions and institutional cleverness, an era of civic virtue will dawn. They are mistaken, but there are some reforms that, although they will not guarantee virtue, will complicate vice, which is as much progress as is possible in this naughty world.

It's a sad, but probably realistic view. Settling for the complication of vice rather then its replacement with virtue may sound defeatist, but I suspect that Will is correct on that score. There is no panacea which can suddenly turn our current pack of congress-critters into saints. He does, however, provide a list of suggestions of actions which could make the situation far better.

End the use of continuing resolutions
Forbid appropriations to private entities
End all earmarks (porkbarrel spending)

Could this be sold to either party? I'm doubtful, but you never know. Will closes with one other suggestion, which even he calls "whimsical" in nature.

The public today is denouncing Congress for its promiscuous attention to the public's appetites for government favors. Although it is a principle of Washington discourse that no discouraging word shall ever be said about the American public, nevertheless:

On the door of every congressional office into which favor-seekers troop, there should be a sign with these words from the late George Stigler, the Nobel Prize-winning economist from the University of Chicago: "I consider it a cowardly concession to a false extension of the idea of democracy to make sub rosa attacks on public tastes by denouncing the people who serve them. It is like blaming the waiters in restaurants for obesity."

Many people attacking Congress are also attacking themselves. And they are correct. Twice.

He's certainly correct on one point: it's very easy to criticize the government. It's something else entirely to be willing to live with the results (and the direct impact they have on you) should your elected officials actually begin acting the way you want them to.