After hearing Hugh Hewitt brace a number of congressional leaders over the past week, my conclusions are as follows:

1. The House of Representatives is still afflicted with pork barrelers with lots of seniority and power, e.g. Hal Rogers, chair of Appropriations who doesn't necessarily want to make cuts as drastic as the situation calls for. His position makes him powerful and not one to be criticized lightly by other House Members. I don't think that even the Speaker wants to be too blunt with him.

2. Boehner and Cantor and Ryan and others are trying to get around these logs in the road to deeper cuts by making all these appropriations bills subject to "open rules" which allow any member to propose amendments changing the bill as it comes out of Rogers' committee. From the reassurances they gave Hugh, I didn't feel that they were less than serious about their pledge to the country, but that there was something they were reluctant to say, which I suspect was that they want to cut as much as possible in the continuing resolution and 2012 Budget, but they have to skirt powerful chairmen like Rogers.

This is just a guess, but I did get weary of Hewitt badgering them, when they were at pains to reassure him but reluctant to put it in the words he was demanding. The reclamation of the government from the Democrats will take two steps the 2010 and 2012 elections. I expect that next year, there will me more primary contests than ever and less patience with the silly proposals put forth by the President and the pack of fools who can't seem to understand that we are on the brink of a real disaster if we don't back off the entitlement spending and regulations that bog down the economy for no better reason than to placate anti-capitalists and environmentalists, who constitute as close to a federal religion as we've had since the Civil War.