Seeking to avoid a politically toxic vote, Congress has failed to pass a federal budget for three years. This year’s new twist? Congress might not even try.
On Monday, President Obama presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2013. It’s going nowhere on Capitol Hill, legislators and political analysts agree. What’s more, Senate Democratic leaders show no intention of presenting their own budget proposals – or taking up any lobbed over from House Republicans.
Technically, they don’t have to, Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada said on Feb. 3. He suggested that the terms of last summer’s debt-ceiling agreement provide all the guidance that Congress needs for the coming fiscal year.
With all due respect to the Majority Leader, the fact that the Senate refuses to pass a budget is more than a technical issue.
The article goes on:
The cost, say analysts, is that Congress is once again allowing the federal budget process to remain rudderless and lawmakers unaccountable as the nation lurches toward fiscal crisis.
“Congress is legally required to consider a budget resolution every year, but there’s no penalty for not doing it, and no one has any standing to sue,” says Stan Collender, a longtime congressional budget analyst with Qorvis Communications in Washington.
Historically, the job of proposing and approving a budget has been a crucial one for the Congress. While actual line-by-line spending decisions are made later, during the appropriations process, the budget is the one federal document that lays out a vision for the nation’s finances. It is designed to be the moment when Congress takes a hard look at the books and makes sound plans for America’s fiscal future.
Runaway spending is a symptom of many things: it is an attempt to prop up an ailing economy; it reflects the ease with which money can be materialized out of thin air; and it is the result of a basic refusal of the political class and citizens alike to confront some very difficult problems that America needs to face – hopefully sooner rather than later. We continue to add and expand entitlement programs as if the country can afford them. The fact is that, even if we wanted to, we could not raise enough revenue to cover the growth in spending – it would put the economy into a tailspin, and greatly reduce the amount of taxes collected.
Runaway spending is also a reflection of a more arcane issue: how the spending power is organized within Congress. Without getting into details, suffice it to say that there used to be far fewer members of Congress who played a role in appropriations and budget policy. As that number has expanded, the notion of balancing the budget became fanciful. Even with proposals for specific cuts, it is unlikely that anything close to a balanced budget could be achieved without reorganizing Congress.
Today, however, our problem is more modest (or more grandiose, depending on how you look at it): far from passing a balanced budget, Congress cannot seem to agree on any budget at all.
Of course, there are plenty of people besides Speaker Reid who don’t think this is a big deal. See here (“CBS/New York Times Poll: Only tiny fringe cared about deficits before, but even less do so now”) and here (“How Did America Survive?”). Folks, you all are in for a rude awakening when these chickens come home to roost. And it won’t be long.
Here’s to finding a way to avert our looming fiscal crisis, before it is too late.
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