And then what ??

Most polls suggest the Democrats are in big trouble in the upcoming midterm elections, probably losing control of the House of Representatives and possibly even losing the Senate. The independent vote that got Obama elected has shifted sharply away from the Democrats, unemployment remains stubbornly high, and there is increasing concern about our military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the very least the Democrats will have even more difficultly after the election getting any major legislation passed.

The good news is that such a realignment in Congress should halt or at least significantly slow the unrestrained spending that has characterized Obama's first term and driven the Federal budget deficit to an astounding $1.4 trillion for this year.

The bad news is that the Republicans seem to have little to offer as effective alternatives, especially on the critical issues of balancing the Federal budget, getting the economy healthy again, reducing unemployment, or solving the Iraq and Afghanistan problems.

It's not that credible conservative policy alternatives don't exist. The problem is that Republicans in Congress, while talking incessantly about conservative ideas, don't actually seem prepared to take the political risk of doing any of them. They certainly didn't do any of them the last time they held power.

Probably the single most important conservative idea is to sharply reduce the size, scope and cost of the Federal government. Spending cuts are the only way out of the current unsustainable fiscal situation. It's the only way we will ever halt the ballooning Federal debt, let alone begin to reduce it. But of course every Federal program closed, every subsidy eliminated, every Federal agency downsized, every regulation removed will cause cries of outrage from this interest group or that union, and the lobbying will be intense. Republicans profess to believe in smaller government, but I see no sign the Republicans in Congress have the political will to take the heat required to make that happen.