Well this is really nice. How do you like this for the “fiscally responsible” Republicans?:

Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), the ranking Democrat on Specter’s subcommittee, noted that funding for Bush’s No Child Left Behind education initiative falls about $15 billion short of the level that was promised when Congress approved it. “That says why so many people are upset with No Child Left Behind around the country,” Harkin said. When the bill finally does advance, he added, “we’re going to try our best” to fill the numerous spending gaps.

One of the few changes to the bill the committee approved would encourage the Education Department to support a campaign to teach the national anthem to schoolchildren, which features the Oak Ridge Boys as “official musical ambassadors.”

Hot Damn – we will teach em stoopid amaricun chyldren how to sing the nashional antam.

This is the typical bullshit that the Republicans pull every year and it gets even better.

The bills approved Thursday cover eight Cabinet-level departments and numerous smaller agencies — federal spending ranging from weapons systems to cancer research.

The panel even named a yet-to-be-built courthouse after Senate Majority Leader Frist, unusual for a sitting member of Congress. (Congress Daily AM, 7/21/06)

Oh but how will Dr. Frist feel with a bunch of “activist judges” working in a building named after him? Perhaps they should have spent money on a Bill Frist memorial hospital that specializes in “over the television” diagnosis.

Senate Majority Project also highlights one other great round of fiscal responsibility by the GOP:

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday unanimously approved a $453.5 billion defense spending bill that makes substantial cuts to several major weapons programs, including the Joint Strike Fighter, Army Future Combat Systems and the replacement fleet of aerial refueling tankers.

The cuts to those and other programs helped strip $9 billion from the Defense Department’s FY07 budget submission, a funding level that already has drawn a veto threat from the White House and could lead to contentious negotiations with House appropriators, who cut $4.1 billion from the Pentagon request.

“We’re always happy to talk about national security because that’s our priority,” said one GOP leadership aide. “It’s certainly helpful to us and they haven’t figured that out yet.” (Congress Daily AM, 7/21/06)

Republicans cutting military funding good. Democrats cutting military funding baddddd. GOP be thy name – Hypocrisy be thy motto.