"It appears to me to be fiscal folly to vote on such a large, expensive contract not knowing where the city is going," said Mr. Spanakos.

But they are positioning themselves between the House and fiscal folly.

The fiscal folly that we have followed for more than a decade has brought us to a crossroads.

When Republicans in Congress sought a tax cut of that scale several years ago, it was derided by Democrats as fiscal folly.

When the economy is operating below capacity - as is true now - deficit reduction is fiscal folly.

Beginning in 1830, Cresson saw in the national organization's finances a lack of accountability and rising debts, and he warned them against such fiscal folly.

To get back each year nearly four times what he paid in a lifetime is, to Mr. Keith, fiscal folly.

But as a result of the last decade's fiscal follies, those resources are not now available for public purposes.

That move essentially put state government into the business of insuring automobiles, a complicated job that proved to be fiscal folly.

He positions himself as an outsider, taking aim at the clubby Washington elites and what he calls their annual "fiscal follies."