With Hurricane Katrina reconstruction costs estimated at upwards of $200 billion, some House Republicans are launching "Operation Offset", a proposal to cut $500 billion in other government spending to pay for the Hurricane Katrina efforts.

While some have mocked such efforts as "moronic", I think it's exactly what we should be thinking about doing. Instead of using Hurricane Katrina as an excuse to expand government (and therefore, government spending) we should use it as an excuse to cut pork. To save something for a rainy day, pardon the pun.

My friend Ed asked me what I thought Ronald Reagan would say about Operation Offset. I came up with a couple of appropriate quotes, but Ed had his own idea of the Gipper's take on the whole situation and how he'd explain it to the American people:

Reagan always put things in simple terms that every family could understand. He'd say something like "When your family has an unexpected expense, like when Johnny decides he wants to go to college, or when Suzy needs surgery, you dont run up your credit card debt - that will get you into more trouble in the long run. What you do is, is you cut back. You scrimp, and you save. You dont take that trip to Disney, not that year. That's what we have to do now -- we have to make cuts. Our politicians want to fix this, but they also want to take that trip to Disneyland. They cant have it both ways..."

I think that's perfect. There's a reason Reagan was the Great Communicator. The brilliance of Reagan, and of Ed's take on Reagan, (and this is something the Dems don't get) is not in his style, but in the substance of what he says. Reagan made government accountable to a standard of simple common sense. Unfortunately, that's still a most revolutionary idea.