Freshmen: running up and down the halls, shouting..

I remember when I went to college and lived in a dorm, which was an all-girls dorm. It was all freshmen too. Life lesson: freshmen away from home for the first time will run up and down the halls, shouting. New found freedom! Drugs, sex, and rock and roll at any hour! (ok it was the 70s)

In later years, no one wanted to house with freshmen, cause they are, well, like that. They just want sheer freedom, and are so enthusiastic. Lacking perspective perhaps. Lacking any discipline to silence their strident voices, though they didn't have a clue what they were talking about.

OK, we all grow up and out of that phase. So what do we have in today's House of Representatives? A whole lot of freshmen (85 of them!) newly elected in November. Ah! Anxious to prove their freedom! The mandates that they alone are responsible for meeting the country's needs! Every single one of them the David that takes on Goliath!

Slingshots at the ready, each of them took their turn stabbing the beast that is the federal government. I have to say one thing, the extreme discipline in the House as they took on some 500 amendments to the continuing resolution to fund the balance of the FY 2011 federal budget. Many votes, even last night - limited to 2 minutes.

All time for debate had passed. The fact that they whipped through that number of amendments shows they truly have a mind for production. Quantity. Quality may be another story (get ready for field failures for some of these errant widgets)..

Here are some that passed, and are in the FY 2011 federal budget that the House will pass on up to the Senate (the upperclassmen):
* Gut the new financial regulations passed (the Dodd-Frank bill that provides stronger regulation over the financial industry - remember how we got into this Recession - all those fancy financial instruments like collateralized debt obligations, and mortgatized securities?)
* Nuke funding for Planned Parenthood
* Nuke funds to implement Obamacare, the Health Care Reform Act that passed last year
* Nuke funds for the EPA to regulate Greenhouse Gasses. I thought it was very administratively clever of Obama and his administration to use the EPA to regulate an obvious global polluter, greenhouse gasses. Hey, if the Congress can't pass strong environmental legislation..
* Nuke funding for net neutrality - sponsored by Oregon's own token Republican, Greg Walden
* Nuke funding for National Public Radio
* Nuke funding for Americorps volunteers

ok they have had their fun, instead of sex/drugs/rock & roll, they have gotten to play in The House, and slash and take stabs at the federal budget they so despise.

On Feb 28, the Senate will have their turn. Oh, look at the gift the freshmen have delivered us. Time to start over, they will sigh. The Minority Leader in the House offers a graceful out as an alternative - how about passing a continuing resolution to fund at FY 2010 levels for the rest of the fiscal year? Thank you, Ms. Pelosi, for being the grown up in the crowd.

The Senate will smile and nod and pass their own budget. Obama will not even have a chance to see what the House hath wrought (if he does, it will get vetoed). And we will have more of the same for the rest of the year.

Will this tie anyone in knots? No I don't think so. Will it result in fundamental budget reform for the federal government? Nope, not either. Maybe just maybe the House freshmen will see the results of all their running up and down the halls shouting, and, while it was fun, and they were watched on cspan for a while, nothing actually came of it. Maybe just maybe they will grow up, although I doubt they are ready to be considered sophomores just yet.