Thus was sealed the fate of fiscal responsibility in the United States.

The Republicans never bothered, in their 1994 Contract-With-America heyday, to repeal the awful 1974 act, which would have given back the president something like a line-item veto on spending, and which would have brought honesty back into accounting.

And so they lost their grip. And now they gripe.

And offer council of political war.

If it's war, the first casualty would be wasteful spending, and on that subject, I am a hawk.

But I am curious what the second and third casualties would be.

Taking a larger view, the best thing to happen would for Congress to come clean, no longer earmark bills for spending projects, and go back to fiscal responsibility and full disclosure as the only honorable way to conduct the affairs of state.

But it didn't happen when the GOP got its taste for power, and the Democrats don't seem inclined to do the right thing, either.

So, will this president dare write up the Executive Order to ignore Congress's hidden, shameful spending?

Perhaps more importantly, would any of the Wannabes currently running for the office take up the cause?

It might be worth asking them.