The upcoming debate on the debt limit offers the perfect opportunity for Congress to stop playacting and put a real budget constraint into effect.

FORBES: In Passing The Most Recent Budget, Congress And The President Lied

Tang Wei, a former model and a prodigious young actress, plays a member of a political-theatre group that carries its playacting into active resistance to the Japanese occupation.

NEWYORKER: Lust, Caution

C. is a sham, mere playacting because it does not contain the essential elements of real budgeting: namely hard spending, revenue and borrowing constraints, which politicians and bureaucrats avoid like the plague.

FORBES: In Passing The Most Recent Budget, Congress And The President Lied

If Republicans play their cards right and insist on instituting real budget constraints to take matters one year at a time, rather than playacting with grandiose multi-year paper plans, they can put in place the institutional framework for real budget control and actually realize tangible results.

FORBES: In Passing The Most Recent Budget, Congress And The President Lied