Going to a Wedding

I will be gone until Tuesday to attend a nephew's wedding being held in the California wine country.

This item in the NYTimes caught my eye.

Washington, Seeking Revenue, Is in a Mood to Sell

Like Americans trying to raise quick cash by unloading their unwanted goods, the federal government is considering a novel way to reduce the deficit: holding the equivalent of a garage sale.

Deep within President Obama’s proposals to raise revenue and reduce the deficit lies a method that has garnered bipartisan support, something rare in Washington these days. It involves selling an island, courthouses, maybe an airstrip, generally idle or underused vehicles, roads, buildings, land — even the airwaves used to broadcast television.

Hardly anything to feel good about. The amount of money to be raised, maybe $20 billion, is trivial in comparison to the deficit or the budget. What's more grating is the talk accompanying this with the Congress congratulating itself for maybe doing something in a bipartisan way.

“This is something that we can have bipartisan agreement on,” said Representative Jeff Denham of California who, as one of the most conservative House Republicans, almost never agrees with the president.

Who does Denham think he is fooling. The is sort of like the bad joke I learned way back in high school: "Besides that Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?" This ploy doesn't even rise to the level of the insufficient fixes I wrote about yesterday.