[Afternoon update]

Something else to celebrate — the fall of the House of Waxman:

The committee was an unending source of ghastly new legislative proposals for regulatory manacles to be fastened on one or another sector of the economy , ideas that with any luck we may now be spared for the next two years. Thus it appears unlikely that the Republican-led committee will give its blessing to something called the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R. 5786), introduced by Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), which — by mandating that all compounds found in personal-care items at any detectable level be expensively tested for and disclosed on labels — could have added tens of thousands of dollars of cost overhead to that little herbal-soap business your sister is trying to start in her garage. (Fragrance expert Robert Tisserand explains why most small personal-care product makers would not survive if the bill passed). Nor is it likely that the new leadership of chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) will be in a hurry to adopt Rep. Schakowsky’s H.R. 1408, the Inclusive Home Design Act, which would mandate handicap accessibility features in most new private homes.

He really is one of the more odious creatures in that cesspool. It’s a shame that he didn’t lose his seat completely, but that’s probably a forlorn hope in his West LA district. But at least he’s been defanged.

I like the sound of this:

Cantor laid out a three-part rule he by which he would seek to abide in the new Congress, which would entail asking every day if the Republican majority’s actions are focused on 1) job creation and economic growth, 2) cutting spending, and 3) shrinking government while protecting and expanding liberty. And if not, to ask, “Why are we doing it?”

The new “results-driven” majority would act quickly to advance its “cut-and-grow playbook” in the next few weeks leading up to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Jan. 25, focusing primarily on reducing government spending — bringing new measures to the floor each week — and doing away with excessive government regulations. “To this day we continue to see the drum beat towards more and more reach by this government and it is impeding job growth and impeding the access to capital for small business,” he said.

Let’s hope they can stick to it.

A 2000+ page legislative atrocity can be repealed with a two-page bill. Won’t take long to read that one. Now that’s what I would call efficient government.

Five things that Obama has done to make it happen. Only five?

Almost half the voters don’t believe Obama’s promise that if you like your health insurance, you can keep it. What’s wrong with the rest of them?

[Update a while later]

Goody. ObamaCare has stopped construction on forty-five hospitals. And the problem with this gang is that it’s always hard to tell if these kinds of consequences are intended, or not.