109th Congress Republicans to the rest of us - F**k you. We're takin' our marbles an' goin' home.

Talking Points Memo:

Pretty amazing stuff. And it seems like it's being treated with a near total media blackout. Stung by the voters' rebuke, the out-going Republican Congress has decided to close its doors without doing it's mandated job, finishing the budget bills for next year. By all rights they should send back their paychecks too.

From the AP ...

Republicans vacating the Capitol are dumping a big spring cleaning job on Democrats moving in. GOP leaders have opted to leave behind almost a half-trillion-dollar clutter of unfinished spending bills.

More from Kevin Drum at The Washington Monthly

REPUBLICANS PICK UP THEIR BALL AND GO HOME....It's nice to see the modern Republican Party taking the business of governing the country so seriously:

....Driving the decision to quit and go home rather than finish the remaining budget work is a determined effort by a group of conservative Republicans to prevent putting a GOP stamp on spending bills covering 13 Cabinet Departments — and loaded with thousands of homestate projects derided as "pork" by critics.

....Some Republicans also look forward to using unfinished budget work to gum up an early Democratic agenda that includes raising the minimum wage, negotiating lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries, cutting interest rates on college loans and repealing some tax breaks for oil companies.

It's like watching a bunch of first graders stomp off the playground after the teacher has told them to break up a fight. And keep in mind that these bills are already two months overdue: the new federal fiscal year started on October 1, and until the FY07 spending bills are passed the government is forced to wheeze along on continuing resolutions and temporary stopgaps.

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