Ryan Alexander is president of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The early indicators of what to expect from the 112th Congress in terms of fiscal responsibility are mixed. On the one hand, a bipartisan and ideologically diverse group of five senators on the President’s Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform voted to forward the panel's proposal to Congress. On the other, the only House of Representatives commission member to vote for it, Representative John Spratt, a South Carolina Democrat and outgoing Budget Committee chairman, will not be in the 112th Congress.

House Republicans made some excellent decisions — leaving intact the highly effective Office of Congressional Ethics; appointing Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican and a thoughtful critic of wasteful spending and earmarks to the Appropriations Committee; and increasing transparency of committee actions. But House Republicans also weakened the “pay as you go” budget rules to “cut as you go,” which favors new tax cuts. And their choice as chairman of the Appropriations Committee is Representative Harold Rogers, Republican of Kentucky, who has routinely found ways through earmarks and other means to plow tax dollars into his district.

Tackling our fiscal challenges will require a willingness to put everything on the table – cutting tax expenditures (thereby increasing revenues) and spending, as well as considering serious efforts to reform both entitlements and the tax code.

The first fiscal tests for the 112th Congress will come early: the response to the president's budget, the passage of appropriations for the remainder of fiscal 2011, the vote to increase the debt limit, and the set-up for 2012 appropriations.

Lawmakers need to start off on the right foot with some cuts: undo the wasteful tax expenditures that passed at the last minute like the ethanol tax credit; or follow Defense Secretary Robert Gates's lead and don’t fund the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.

Leadership in both chambers must realize that Americans expect and deserve results. Congress cannot afford to dither with an eye toward the 2012 election instead of addressing the enormous fiscal and economic challenges ahead of us.

TCS President Ryan Alexander Op-Ed:The Appropriations Pork Machine (The New York Times)