"Something terrible happened in Congress yesterday--and nobody seemed to notice. House Republicans voted to take money away from programs meant to help poor people and give it to the military instead. That's not my idea of wise policy, but that's what was terrible about it. The problem is that the vote constitutes a collective Republican welching on the agreement that was reached last spring to raise the statutory debt ceiling and avoid national default. Yesterday's vote doesn't undo the deal or cause any immediate problems, but by so speedily backing out of their agreement, the Republicans have done something much worse--made it impossible for anyone to negotiate with them in the future, because it's clear they cannot be trusted to keep the promises they made." - Andrew C (✓) from Bookmarklet