Writing in the Wall Street Journal today, Congressmen Mike Pence and Jeb Hensarling lay out how we can wrangle government and get it under control:

Fiscal storm clouds are upon us. In five years, federal spending has skyrocketed to 24.7% from 19.9% of our economy. That’s the highest level since World War II. Borrowing has ballooned the national debt to $11.9 trillion from $7.3 trillion, a five-year increase equal to the accumulation of debt between President George Washington and President Bill Clinton.

Unfortunately, the long-term fiscal picture is worse. As the Baby Boom generation retires and the cost of health care continues to escalate, entitlement programs will cause federal spending to rise to 40% of our economy, double its post-World War II average. This is assuming that spending does not increase even further, an assumption that the trillion-dollar “stimulus” bill and the 84% increase in nondefense discretionary spending President Obama signed into law argues against.

Their proposal:

Winston Churchill once said that “Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” We’ve exhausted the possibilities. Now it’s time to do the right thing.

That is why we are proposing a Spending Limit Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment would limit spending to one-fifth of the economy (our historical spending average since World War II). The limit could only be waived by a declaration of war or by a two-thirds congressional vote.

As with other constitutional amendments, Congress would be given the authority to enforce and implement it. But for the first time, the federal government would have a limit on its size and scope. The Spending Limit Amendment does not promise a particular spending plan about what programs to restrain and by how much. Rather, it puts a legal constraint on lawmakers present and future.

As ideas go this is a pretty good one.  Constitutional amendments are very difficult to pass, though.  Can the Tea Party movement rally around this idea and make November a referendum on it?  It’s possible, but I’m not sure how that could be enough.

Republicans would have to run the table just to get a Senate majority.  It’s not possible for them to win the 66 votes needs to pass a Constitutional amendment.  And no matter how scared they are, I just don’t see any Democrats voting for this.  It would mean the end of their tax and spend racket, and would force them to deal with the growing fiscal crises of Medicare and Social Security.

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Mike Pence unsurprisingly delivered a stellar speech Friday.  The morning’s lineup was good, but none had yet delivered a jolt to shake the crowd out of their grogginess following what was probably a late night for day one in most cases.

I’m posting the video below, so I won’t recount item by item.  Rather, I’ll reiterate things I’ve probably said about Pence before.  He’s the most polished speaker here.  Interestingly he has some of the mannerisms of George W. Bush, like an “oh shucks smirk” that probably drives the left wild.  But that’s where the similarities (in terms of communication ability) end.  Pence also has a Kennedy-esque quality to his oratory, and a proven ability to excite the crowd.  See for yourself:

Later in the afternoon, Pence stopped by the bloggers lounge:

Mike Pence to bloggers: 100% chance Republicans take back the House

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Another Democrat is bowing out from the 2010 races.  Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, one of the few less liberal members of the party, has been popular in a state typically more favorable toward Republicans.  This decision is a bit surprising, as the polls have not had him behind any of his possible Republican opponents.  Without an incumbent with a lot of cash, and given the fact that Bayh was unusually popular as a Democrat in Indiana, it’s quite likely that today’s announcement has shifted the state from the leans Democrat to the leans Republican category.

The Democratic leadership cannot be happy.

Update: Mike Pence is reconsidering his decision not to run for the seat.

Update II: Pence again declines to enter the race.

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Folks on the right are finally learning how to use this new media stuff.  Here’s three new videos with some juicy, political red meat.

From Rep. Pence:

From the Independence Institute:

And finally, from Rep. Boehner:

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Not everyone in the Republican party is too scared to stand up against the big government onslaught:

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Simple and to the point:

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Here’s Mike Pence from day 1 of CPAC.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

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If one were to believe the conventional wisdom espoused in the media, the conservatives are demoralized after that election and that conservatism itself is dead, then one would expect a conservative conference to be lightly attended and full of sulking zombies.  The conventional wisdom is wrong.  CPAC 2009 is the biggest ever.  Let me say that again: CPAC 2009 has more registered participants than any previous conference.

Moving on to the substance of the conference, day one featured a number of impressive speeches.  Right off the bat, Paul Ryan, one of the future stars of the republican party, got things started with a speech impressive in both substance and style.  The policy ideas he discussed, such as scraping our “byzantine tax code,” were from his Roadmap for America’s Future.

John Bolton followed in his usual direct and humorous style.  He had some criticisms for the Bush administration’s foreign policy, suggesting that they allowed North Korea to develop their weapons programs unhindered, and also attempted to block Israeli action against Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2007.  Criticism of the Bush administration continued from many other speakers throughout the night.  Someone referred to him as a “pseudo-socialist,” though I don’t remember who.  The most humorous was Tucker Carlson’s plea to find a conservative leader who can actually articulate conservatism.  He described watching a Bush speech as watching a drunk try to cross an icy road, all the while waiting for him to slip on a prepositional phrase and eat it (summarizing).  More seriously, he pointed out that after 8 year’s of Clinton’s articulate lies, it was understandable to conclude that presentation didn’t matter over principles (non-existent as Bush’s turned out to be).

The day’s best speech belonged to Mike Pence.  After Ryan’s brilliant opening, I wasn’t expecting anyone to top it.  Pence did.  He has an impressive delivering style to go with an unimpeachably conservative message.  His commanding speech was far better than anything John McCain delivered in his entire campaign, and the crowd responded with numerous stnading ovations, something which other speakers were lucky to get only when they came and left.

After the next day or two of the conference, I’ll discuss some the important themes I’ve noticed.

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