Could it be possible that one benefit of this new era of divided government in Washington is spending restraint? We'll believe it when we see it, but one good portent was President Bush's op-ed yesterday in these pages.
Mr. Bush stressed spending control, and yesterday he also offered his own proposal for Congress to restrain its "earmarking" of tens of thousands of pork-barrel projects each year. The White House wants Members to disclose the sponsor, the cost, the beneficiary and the justification for each such earmark -- in a move that echoes what such House GOP reformers as Jeff Flake of Arizona were trying to pass last year. John Boehner, the new House minority leader, quickly seconded this motion.
Our only caveat is: What took them so long? Mr. Bush never did say much about earmarks when the GOP was in charge and the likes of Jerry Lewis, Roy Blunt, Don Young and Dave Hobson were setting earmark records. Perhaps now that they're in the minority, Republicans can reclaim some of their fiscal virtue -- though the voters will be forgiven if they put such promises on probation given the GOP's recent past.
Competition between the parties doesn't always produce spending control or smaller government -- witness the late 1990s, when Bill Clinton gave the GOP higher defense outlays in return for more domestic spending. But at least in the early days of Democratic control, both parties are at least trying to sound like fiscal conservatives. Who knows? Maybe we'll even see a few vetoes.
