The interest of some in Washington to stick Iraq with a reconstruction loan - cop-out national security at its worst - is offensive enough. Raising taxes is economically unwise, poorly reasoned (some hikes to be flung several years down the road) and a not-so-subtle trojan horse ("No New Taxes II") for Bush. But it's unconscienable for Congress to wax statesman with these proposals when available resources are obvious, and within their very oversight. From the Wall Street Journal today:

There's another way to offset [the $87 billion aid package]. Congress could clean up some of the waste, fraud and abuse in the federal budget. House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle has been pushing his fellow House chairmen to do just that. Today he will announce what they've turned up. And, wouldn't you know it, they found $85 billion to $100 billion that could be saved even without cutting any services.

The Congressional Budget Office has found that Medicaid effectively reimburses states twice for the same administrative services. Ending that practice would save $3.7 billion over ten years. The CHIPS program, which is supposed to insure children, is providing health care for childless adults in at least two states, according to the General Accounting Office. Ending that would save $330 million.

Competitive bidding on durable medical equipment could save Medicare $13.4 billion over 10 years. And another $25.4 billion could be saved by bringing home health payments in line with actual home health-care costs, says GAO. And don't forget Social Security: Legislation now in the House would save $1.4 billion over 10 years by looking for recipients who defraud the government by hiding income, and save an additional $655 million by withholding checks to fugitive felons and parole violators.

We can be assured that there's plenty more waste, redundancy and frivolous investment in wartime to be found in a $2 trillion budget. (Scratch what I said earlier about Republicans as a whole - there's always hope to be found in the House). Congressional opponents of the Iraqi aid are fond of talking about sacrifice: it's just as well they find a very personal meaning for the word.