HARD TIMES, BUT NOT FOR CONGRESS: “While businesses across the country are cutting back, members of the House saw their own office budgets increase by an average of 7 percent between 2008 and 2009. House officials say the increase is because of — not in spite of — the nation’s economic woes.”

As Tim Noah put it, “On Wall Street, financial crisis destroys jobs. Here in Washington, it creates them. The rest is just details.” Kind of an incentive problem there, if you’re hoping for Washington to fix the economy. . . .