The iron rule in Washington is that appropriators love to spend and borrow money – regardless of what party they’re in.

So we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the Appropriations Committees are taking advantage of the turmoil in the House and the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from the Speaker’s chair, to reassert their right to spend and blow through even the lenient spending caps that were agreed to during the debt ceiling deal earlier this year.

Tom Cole, the vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has told reporters: “This agreement was faulty from the beginning. It’s changed over time, and now in a sense, it doesn’t exist at all because McCarthy isn’t the speaker anymore.” Then he added: “So we’re not really bound by this agreement now.”

Only four out of 12 appropriations bills have passed the House so far, and Cole’s comments will increase pressure to pad the remaining ones.

It’s more important than ever that whoever is the new Speaker support efforts like Kentucky Rep. Tom Massie’s to trim federal spending by one percent across the board. Otherwise, the appropriators are going to go hog wild on a budget that is already running a $2 trillion annual deficit.