I'm with the Republicans on this: Harry Reid's suggestion that Congressional operations saw a $4.4 billion budget increase in order to retain Republican staffing levels is bunk. Republicans lost 20 percent of their seats. That's not $4.4 billion in staff. Which is not say the money is wasted. That said, there's a very good case that funding for Congressional staff should be radically bulked up. They have far less analytical firepower than is needed for the legislative work they do. Max Baucus, who's likely to reform the $2 trillion health care system, has a half dozen people on his health care team. But I've not heard that this money is going for general staff, either. Update: A tired blogger is a crappy blogger. Reid increased the budget to $4.4 billion. From $4 billion. So: $400 million. Republicans still make a good case that that's not coming from staff for them -- $400 million remains a lot of money for staff -- but I should get the numbers right.
