John Fund sees some good news in Washington’s fiscal foes. He documents that good news in a new National Review Online column.

Imagine what the media reaction would be if in the aftermath of yesterday’s Senate vote blocking new background checks, a leading official of the gun lobby had explained his side’s success by saying: “Bribery isn’t what it once was. The government has no money. Once upon a time you would throw somebody a post office or a research facility in times like this. Frankly, there’s not a lot of leverage.” Washington would be in full outrage mode, and there would be demands to find out who had made such an offensive claim.

Of course, no such pro-gun official has said any such thing. But Politico reports that an official of one of the major gun-control lobbies told them precisely that. Save for a few blog posts and articles, the remark has gone unnoticed, despite the obvious legal implications. …

… If the pro-gun-control official cited in Politico is right, the current government sequester is working — Washington has less money for bribes. The spending spree that liberals (in both parties) have luxuriated in over the past decade has had a perverse side effect: People used to having their pockets lined turn a cold shoulder when the cash flow slows down.

Sequestration isn’t the only restraint on the persuasion-through-cash habit. An outraged public has forced Congress to curb special-interest earmarks inserted into bills in the dead of night. The annual national debt has reached such unsustainable levels that the punch bowl is being taken away. There’s no longer enough “walking around money” to buy off a few senators in hopes of securing, at long last, the liberal holy grail of gun control.

What delicious irony. Washington’s welfare state, which has benefited corporations and commoners alike, may be reaching its natural limits. Investing money in Washington lobbyists might no longer promise businesses the kind of return it has done so for decades.