Ron Smith of the Baltimore Sun: "history tells us nothing, in the end, is too big to fail."

Ron Smith wrote an excellent piece in The Baltimore Sun in support of fiscal restraint. Read it here. This is in the intro:

Looking at the history of runaway government spending, a disturbing pattern is readily discernible: There is never a lack of observers at a given time who understand the severity of the trouble at hand, but these people lack the power to cut costs and avert calamity. An observer at the time of Imperial Spain's unwinding more than three centuries ago commented on the failure of every attempt at real reform, writing, "Those who can will not and those who will cannot."