I would counsel my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, if you want timely salvage operations in Yosemite or anywhere else in the country--if that's really your goal--fund the Government.

Basically what we are doing is consigning what was once forestland to become brushland for the next several decades?

We need to take immediate action.

Four hundred miles of roads are now in jeopardy. If nearby trees are not removed before winter, we can expect dead trees to begin toppling, risking lives and closing access.

As time passes, the value of this dead timber declines, until after a year or so it becomes unsalvageable.

What he didn't explain was that process takes a year or more, and by the time the normal environmental review of salvage operations has been completed, a year from now, what was once forestland will have already begun converting to…

The situation is particularly urgent because of the early infestation of bark beetles, which have already been observed attacking the dead trees.

It is estimated that up to 1 billion board feet of fire-killed timber can still be salvaged out of the forests that have been devastated by the Yosemite Rim Fire, but it requires immediate action.

If you want timely salvage operations in Yosemite or anywhere else in the country--if that's really your goal--fund the Government.

That is an example of what I like to call McClintock's third law of political physics, which is the more we invest in our mistakes, the less willing we are to admit them.

It seems to me they are two sides of the same coin, that deficits are taxes.