G.O.P. on a Spending-Cut 'Frenzy,' 'Destroying Vital Government Programs With Gleeful Abandon'

The Times has hit on a loaded word to describe Republican attempts to trim the $1.1 trillion federal budget deficit: "Frenzy."

Here's the lead to congressional reporter Carl Hulse's report on House Speaker John Boehner's quest for cuts, "Boehner in His Element as Spending Cuts Elicit Free-Flowing House Debate":

For Speaker John A. Boehner, the budget-cutting frenzy taking place on the House floor merges two of his animating political passions - the need to shrink federal spending and the willingness to risk a free-flowing debate.

But for true hostility in defense of big government and Obama's big-spending priorities, go to Thursday's lead editorial, "Out of Control in the House," the lead of which was hysterical in every sense of the word.

Are there any adults in charge of the House? Watching this week's frenzied slash-and-burn budget contest, we had to conclude the answer to that is no.

First Speaker John Boehner's Republican leadership proposed cutting the rest of the 2011 budget by $32 billion. But that wasn't enough for his fanatical freshmen, who demanded that it be cut by $61 billion, destroying vital government programs with gleeful abandon.

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