Speaking of a 'Contract With America'

It's ALIVE! And it lives in the Republican Study Conference-- a conservative caucus in the House.

With Congress heading into a politically perilous budget season, influential House conservatives plan this week to propose an austere alternative spending plan that would pare more than $650 billion over five years, balance the budget and drastically shrink three cabinet agencies.

The legislation, part of a push by some Republicans to re-establish themselves as champions of fiscal restraint, was taking shape as President Bush struck a similar theme on Monday by asking Congress to grant him line-item veto power to eliminate federal spending that he might judge wasteful.

You just read "austere," "shrink" and "drastic" in a story about Republicans and spending. Even Bush is mentioned on the side of fiscal discipline for his line-item veto push. Happy days could be here again, folks.

H/t Andy and Tim.