Weekly Columns

The appropriations process of the first session of the 112th Congress ended on a surprisingly positive note with passage of a 2012 funding bill that cut government spending for the second year in a row. National Journal reporter Major Garrett described this year's spending cuts as "the deepest and most unsettling" that "official Washington" has ever seen, but most conservatives would just call the $95 billion in cuts a good start. Much more progress is needed to undo the damage of decades of reckless spending and put the nation on sound fiscal footing.

As with most things in Washington, this year's appropriations process was slow and frustrating, but the end result is a major victory for fiscal sanity.

On December 16, Congress finalized a fiscal 2012 government appropriations bill that cuts spending for the second consecutive year -- the first time since World War II that government spending has been reduced in back-to-back years. These are real spending cuts that reduce spending by $95 billion compared to fiscal year 2010 and brings non-defense discretionary spending down to 2008 levels.

Concerns about government overreach and overregulation are among the the most common complaints I've heard in town hall meetings this year. And no government regulation has inspired more justified outrage recently among Oklahomans than the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed new rules controlling farm dust.

Last month, the Federal Election Commission announced that it has doled out $17.7 million in taxpayer money to both the Republican and Democratic parties to fund their 2012 presidential nominating conventions. Days later, U.S. debt reached $15 trillion. The timing of these two events reinforces the fact that is is simply outrageous to devote millions in taxpayer money to pay for presidential campaigns when we're going broke.

President Obama is having a field day campaigning against a Congress he says is not doing enough to create jobs -- despite the fact that House Republicans have passed more than 20 jobs bills that are now languishing in the Democratic Senate. However, when presented with a golden opportunity to create 20,000 jobs and decrease America's reliance on foreign oil, President Obama punted.

The U.S. national debt reached the latest in a series of sobering milestones recently. As of November 15, our accumulated debt officially stands at more than $15 trillion. Worse still, $4.4 trillion of that debt was racked up just since President Obama took office.

New Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has been charged with cutting $450 billion from the Defense Department over the next 10 years. In keeping with that goal, the Air Force recently announced a realignment that will ultimately benefit Tinker Air Force Base. Tinker's Air Logistics Center will now become the new single head for Air Force sustainment and logistics, making it one of the military's leading repair and maintenance facilities. The assignment of a sustainment center and 3-star general highlights Tinker's pre-eminent role among air logistics facilities.

Bipartisan cooperation is often hard to come by in Washington, but some ideas are so bad that both Republicans and Democrats can agree to work together to oppose them. Such is the case with taxation of employee health benefits.