Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike.  No questions, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.  [Animal Farm, last paragraph]

Republicans were ushered into power in 2010, buoyed by limited government populism spawned by the Tea Party.  They publicized a document called the GOP Pledge to America.  You should take some time to read it.  There are many interesting declarations in there.  You’ll find lectures about the need to let the legislative process work; about the 3 day legislative transparency rule; about not spending most of the time on banal suspension bills; about cutting taxes; about getting rid of Obamacare; about cutting spending.  Interesting indeed.

Republicans began their session in 2011 promising an immediate cut of $100 billion in spending.  They lied.  Ultimately, they only cut $352 million off of the FY 2011 budget.  How fitting it is for them to end the 112^th Congress by increasing spending by $330 billion…along with hiking taxes, letting every aspect of the Obamacare tax hikes slide, and obviating our leverage with the debt ceiling by agreeing to a sequester trap to coincide with the next battle.

Yes, we know…wait until March, and they will really extract concessions from Obama…just like they did $2.1 trillion ago.  Except that they have already said they will never “allow us to default,” and they have communicated that fact to the Democrats.

Here is a spreadsheet of the voting tally from the Madison Performance Index.  Take a look at it, and try to decipher the pigs from the men.  Many of those who got us into this mess in the first place, including Cantor and McCarthy, joined the free ride and gave out hall passes to vote no.

Parting question: will Cantor and McCarthy purge themselves from their committee assignments for voting against the leadership scorecard?