but they are a good start. Operation Offset, for example, steers away from cutting Cold War weapon systems at the Department of Defense. Military spending is already half of all discretionary spending, so it is not time to take any of the nation's budgetary choices off the table. Literally, we need to count all the federal dollars hiding in every agency couch cushion or we will never come up with the money to offset the Katrina costs.

Steve Ellis