The next House speaker should learn from 2011 experience on fiscal reform

"It has been said that history repeats itself," psychoanalyst Theodor Reik (no, not Mark Twain) first observed. "This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes."

History could and should rhyme loudly when the 118th  Congress takes office in January, particularly on fiscal issues. In 2011, just as in the year that begins in January, the Republicans regained control of the House (after a four-year hiatus) while the White House and the Senate remained in Democratic hands.