The Congress: Where Charity Begins

Faced with the possibility of a $25 billion federal deficit for the current fiscal year, Congress is in a cutting mood. The House has already axed the rent subsidy and rat-control programs, and last week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee lopped a whopping $736 million off the Administration's $3.4 billion foreign-aid request. But Congress also knows where charity begins. When a $276 million congressional housekeeping bill came to a vote recently, members hooted down proposals for a 5% reduction. And in a deficit-be-damned mood last week, the House passed, 375 to 26, a $4.6 billion public-works appropriations bill, $2...