Not playing the game

It would seem that Sen. Barack Obama is not out to become the most popular guy in Washington DC.

The Illinois Democrat is advocation revolution. Insurrection. Stealing candy from ... politicians.

Turning the Capitol upside down and inside out.

He's actually advocating cutting pork. Doesn't he realize that pork is the fuel that D.C. runs on?

Yet in today's Chicago Tribune, Obama advocates cutting pork to pay for real, needed projects. You know, like paying to rebuild from the Katrina disaster:

Chicago Tribune

| Cutting `pork' to rebuild coast: "It's time for a return to responsibility in the budget process.

I know there are Democrats who don't want to give up spending, Republicans who don't want to give up any tax breaks for the wealthy and members of both parties who don't want to give up pet projects back home, but now is a time for shared sacrifice. Americans want members of both parties to put all options on the table to start solving this problem.

I believe that we can quickly find $100 billion for Gulf Coast reconstruction with a balanced approach that finds half the money in spending cuts and half the money in the delay and repeal of tax breaks, primarily for millionaires."

And Obama doesn't just talk in platitudes and rhetoric. He has ideas:

To cut $50 billion in spending, we could put a two-year moratorium on all pet projects and other local spending. We could defer projects such as the $10 billion mission to Mars or eliminate unnecessary business subsidies.

We could drop funding that gives private companies extra incentives to participate in the new Medicare drug program--as the Senate already has agreed to do, though the White House has refused thus far.

We could save Medicaid money by increasing the rebates that brand-name drug manufacturers owe the program.

Wait. There's more!

Others intent on cutting spending have pointed to Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere" as a wasteful project. I agree and believe that it represents the first type of project we should cut. But it's wrong to single out one state's pork project. If we're serious about shared responsibility, let's eliminate all pork projects in all states. To find $50 billion in tax breaks, we could postpone a planned tax break for millionaires, and we could temporarily roll back one of the tax cuts for those who make an income of more than $2 million per year.

Something this open, transparent and refreshing doesn't often come from our political leaders.

But it sure sounds good when it does.

You go, Barack.

And so it goes.