A new level of Republican fiscal irresponsibility

This story from the AP is outrageous. The Republicans running Congress right now have decided that they are going to leave their budget mess behind for the Democrats to clean up next year rather than finish the appropriations bills now that they should have done before the elections.

It's of course part of the plan for the Republicans to take back control in two years.

The bulging workload that a Republican-led Congress was supposed to complete this year but is instead punting to 2007 promises to consume time and energy that Democrats had hoped to devote to their own agenda upon taking control of Congress in January for the first time in a dozen years.

And I do hope the doctors remember this little move too:

Now, with the agenda shrinking, a session that will be the last for 45 retiring or defeated House members and senators should be wrapped up by Dec. 8.

That could work against efforts to forestall a cut in physicians' Medicare payments. Under a formula dating back to 1997, Medicare payments to doctors for office visits will drop an average 5 percent on Jan. 1 — unless Congress steps in. Keeping them the same for another year would be expensive, about $10.8 billion, and chances are mixed at best for the doctors' lobby.

Hat tip: Talking Points Memo