Non-Renewal of Patriot Act a Libertarian Triumph--Damn the Neocons, Abolish the Two DOEs

Russell Berman of The Hill views the failure of the House to renew the Patriot Act as a blow to the GOP:

"The sudden breakdown prompted a round of finger-pointing within the GOP upper ranks...Contrite senior aides acknowledged that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had miscalculated the level of opposition from Democrats and from within their own ranks."

Likewise, Steve Bell of Frum Forum writes:

"The cracks became real fissures though when the long-feared reality of budget arithmetic dawned on the fiscal hawks in the party.  As we predicted long ago, finding $100 billion in real deficit reduction cuts in the FY11 Continuing Resolution would prove improbable, despite promises by most Republicans that they would achieve that goal."

Bell didn't do well in microeconomics.  It is easy to find a trillion dollars in waste in the federal budget. It is easy to find two trillion.  Rand Paul suggests eliminating the pointless departments of energy and education. Most government agencies produce no value and can be drastically reduced.  Corporate interests like General Electric's MSNBC object to such steps because the chief beneficiaries of government regulation are corporations like General Electric (disclosure: I own 200 GE shares).

Advocacy of the Departments of Energy and Education is extremism.  They do not contribute to improvement of education or the energy picture. Their advocacy involves extreme commitment to economic decline and subsidization of monopoly power.