New federal budget will set the tone for a new era

It's budget season again in Washington, and you know what that means: rhetoric for dollars as grown men and women make deals, cajole each other, vote for things they don't want and oppose things they do, and practically do back flips to get their version of the budget written into law.

Economic conservatives, who include most Republicans, want you to believe that economic liberals, many of them Democrats, are the big spenders, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are at least as many Republican pet projects and constituent programs in the federal budget as there are Democratic ones.