Al Franken is planning to introduce legislation in the Senate that would apply pay-as-you-go rules to U.S. military operations:

The measure would not specify how Congress would have to pay for the action — that could happen through increasing revenues or cutting spending elsewhere — but it would have to be paid for before votes on any spending could proceed.

This seems like a no-brainer to me. Wars and other military actions are extremely expensive, and they’re also something we shouldn’t enter into lightly. There is absolutely no reason we should put these conflicts on a credit card. And of course, this is a good time for the legislation, as all of Washington is currently pretending to be interested in the deficit. 

Unfortunately, I predict it will fail miserably. Nobody actually cares about the deficit, and everybody loves a good war. I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t see that happening.