The phone rang just now at home, where I was (and am) writing this week’s editorial on Libya. The voice at the other end said, “Bill, this is John Boehner.” We’ve been so swamped with automated fund-raising calls recently that I started to hang up—but fortunately I realized that automated callers don’t usually greet me by name. I gathered myself just in time to respond, “Hi, John,” and the speaker gave me (and I’m sure many others on his call list) a brief update on GOP budget strategy. It sounds tough-minded and sensible.

The current continuing resolution (CR) funding government expires on March 4th. So the House will pass, early next week, an additional two-week continuing resolution (CR) with $4 billion in spending cuts. That would reduce spending at the same rate per week as the seven month CR the House passed before recess.