Outrage of the week: The boondoggle of homeland security

Republicans once claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility inveighing against government waste, calling for limitless tax cuts, and proposing a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. But now that they're controlling the levers of power in Washington, they seem to have forgotten their former selves. In recent weeks we've learned:

• The Transportation Security Administration has been engaging in rampant waste;
• Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, demonstrated the worst contract abuse ever observed by one Pentagon procurement official; and,
• The FBI continues to throw away money after blowing $104 million on software to create a huge database of open cases.

It almost makes me miss the Republicans of old.