No, they didn't.
Tough choices would be something that takes benefits away from or adds burdens to the rich and powerful interests that pay for Cannon's - and every other representative's - campaigns.
Tough choices would be turning our backs on the foolish tax cuts for the rich that are so popular in the White House and on Wall Street but do very little to encourage real investment or create jobs.
Tough choices would be finding a way to pay for the war in Iraq, the reconstruction of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, the looming flu pandemic and the towering costs of the new Medicare drug plan without leaving generations yet unborn to pay off our spiraling debt.
Tough choices would be finding a way to really start reducing the estimated $1.6 trillion in federal deficits over the next five years without taking it all out of the backs of the poor, the aged, the young and the sick.
The bill that passed the House on a 212-206 vote does none of that. It only hurts the people who can't hurt members of Congress, and it only reduces that deficit by 2.5 percent.
The bill does nothing to make Medicaid more affordable for either the individuals who need it or the states that have to pay an increasing share of the cost. It will make student loans harder to get.
Proposals in the earlier Senate version that would have taken some of the cost out of the hides of drug companies or doctors have been scrapped, but the poor will be expected to shoulder higher co-pays and the elderly will find it harder to transfer assets to their children so as to qualify for subsidized nursing home care.
Republican leaders in the House needed every vote they could get to pass this irresponsible budget package, and they got the votes of Cannon and Rep. Rob Bishop. Utah's lone Democrat, Rep. Jim Matheson, correctly voted against it.
The bill now goes for a Senate vote, maybe today. Utah's Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, of course, support it. But enough other Republicans are opposed that Vice President Dick Cheney has been recalled from a diplomatic tour of the Middle East in case he has to break a tie.
Better the vice president keep his appointments in Saudi Arabia, and let this budget package die.
