George Will has a few suggestions for cleaning up Washington in his column Government As Trough:

End the use of continuing resolutions. Adopted at the end of fiscal years when Congress does not complete appropriations bills, continuing resolutions usually authorize the government to continue spending at current levels. If Congress had to get its work done on time -- if the only alternative were a chaotic government shutdown -- it would. Then Congress would have less reason to loiter in Washington doing mischief.

Dutiful government bureaucrat that I am, it was my job this past fall to guide a few software maintenance bills through the red tape that passes for the federal government's bill paying system. Of course it's never as straightforward as it should be, and the contracting rules are unfortunately made more difficult each year. Because somebody somewhere abused the system, we're all made to pay by generating several more rolls of red tape in a stupid attempt to make sure that no-one anywhere ever abuses it again. To make matters worse, the continuing resolution for DoD this year meant that by the time we figured out how to actually pay the bills contracting-wise, we didn't have money left to pay them, because we had exceeded our continuing-resolution-previous-fiscal-year-spending-levels. When one of the software companies inquired about the status of their now overdue invoice, I replied that their best bet would be to write their Congressional delegation and tell them to pass the DoD appropriations bill. Luckily, they found this as amusing as I did.

More from George:

Forbid appropriations to private entities. Government money should flow directly to government agencies -- federal, state or local. And those agencies should be required to formally testify that local projects receiving national funding serve essential national needs. Appropriations that are, in effect, cash flows from individual representatives to private entities are invitations to corruption. Federal money directed to private entities was what ex-representative Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) was bribed to deliver.

So, end 'earmarks.' They write into law a representative's or senator's edict that a particular sum be spent on a particular project in his or her state or district ....

Often, earmarks are included in neither the House nor Senate version of an appropriations bill but are inserted surreptitiously and at the last minute in the report of the conference committee -- and the House rule against this is routinely waived.

Also as part of my job as dutiful government bureaucrat, I happen to be project manager for a couple "earmarks." We tend to call them "Congressional Projects" instead of "earmarks," and while I am happy to report that the ones I deal with have significantly better curb appeal than the Bridge to Nowhere, they are, at the end of the day, a mechanism to funnel taxdollars to private entities. They are probably worth doing anyway, but if they had to pass the George Will litmus test as described above, they would be more-probably worth doing.

So, Dead Armadillos officially endorses the George Will shut-down-the-trough plan (no doubt just what George was angling for when he wrote this piece)  ¶ 11:44 PM