This is why our national government is going broke

From the CQ Toady/Roll Call Briefing email that landed in my in-box, the House is working the budget issue, the Senate is debating patent reform, which is becoming a vehicle for fiscal policy amendments 9which have nothing to do with patent law. This is why Mr. Reid is not a leader - my employer runs out of money come mid-night Friday, and he can't be bothered to rearrange the deck chairs to deal with that. Amazing!

Today In Washington THE HOUSE: Convened at 10 and will start legislative business at noon. Before sunset it will pass the latest stopgap spending bill, which would cut $4 billion from fiscal 2011 appropriations and keep the government open for the next two weeks. THE SENATE: Convened at 10 to continue debating what would be the first substantial patent law rewrite in half a century. The bill — which would switch from a first-to-invent to a first-to-file system of issuing patents — is quickly becoming a magnet for unrelated fiscal policy amendments that could slow its progress. One would offer an early test vote on raising the debt limit; another would endorse the idea of a balanced-budget constitutional amendment.