In sworn testimony yesterday before the Senate Budget Committee, Congress’ chief budget analyst lambasted the health reform proposals drafted by congressional Democrats in both chambers for failing to control government spending.

Douglas Elmendorf, who directs the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, said neither the House bill nor the one drafted by the Senate health committee propose “the sort of fundamental changes” required to alter the cost curve on federal health spending.

In fact “the curve is being raised,” he remarked to the stunned audience. 

Fiscally conservative House Democrats, who had been saying this all along, said Elmendorf’s testimony would cause more of their colleagues to demand changes to the $1.2 trillion House bill, which proposes to provide health insurance to 97% percent of Americans by 2015.

And Republicans jumped on it faster than Usain Bolt on skates.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, who never misses an opportunity to throw thumbtacks in front of the Big O’s Health Reform Express, said Elmendorf’s comments prove “that one of the Democrats’ chief talking points is pure fiction.”

Boehner’s henchman in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell added that Elmendorf’s salvo should be a “wake-up call” for Obama and his Democratic allies, and called yet again for the process to be slowed down. 

Echoing those sentiments, Republican Senator Olympia Snowe said “I think it would be prudent for the president to be patient.” Snowe was one of 3 Republicans who voted for the Big O’s Economic Hail Mary back in January.

Bipartisan approval of the final legislation “can provide huge impetus for (its) success,” she told the Washington Post.

Everyone knows that bathroom mirrors fog up during a hot shower. To evaporate the mist for its privileged guests, some top-end hotels put heating coils behind the mirrors.

But humid conditions can cloud-up eyeglasses or camera lenses by the same mechanism, and there has heretofore been no way to fix the problem short of a smudge-producing wipe.

And the same problem can become dangerous when a car’s windshield is affected, especially for those who don’t understand that the AC needs to be on in order to solve that problem.

When warm, humid air contacts a relatively cold glass surface, water vapor will condense on the glass. The condensate consists of billions of water droplets that diffract light.

Various sprays and chemical alterations have largely failed to solve the annoyance, but now a Chinese team may have figured it out once and for all.

Junhui He and colleagues from Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Sciences have created an anti-mist coating made of nanoparticles that can be applied to windshields at a cost of a few cents per item.

He’s team recognized that certain nanoparticles, applied just so, effectively break the surface tension of the water droplets when they try to form. The result is a transparent film of water that does not scatter light.

After experimenting with various shapes and chemicals, He’s team determined that oxygen-treated, silicone-covered polystyrene spheres shaped like raspberries were most effective in this regard.

The team plans to commercialize the process immediately.