Among the members of Congress raising the greatest ruckus as Washington descended into budgetary chaos were those most responsible for creating the mess in the first place. There were Reaganite conservatives like Newt Gingrich of Georgia for whom vote-winning formulas -- including the infamous "Read my lips, no new taxes" -- are more important than the national interest. There were Democratic liberals like Henry Waxman of California, whose vision of the government as a cash cow for special interests helped spawn taxpayer revolts and voodoo economics. And there were the special-interest lobbyists whose phone-bank politics stampeded Congress into yet another crazed...
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