Congress Spends Without a Budget

Deficits are soaring and spending continues unrestrained.  Americans are infuriated at a government that does not appear to care about how much is being spent or even if the spending has any relation to the amount of revenue coming into the government.  Neither President Obama nor Congress appear to care how much this spending will cost future generations in higher taxes just to pay the interest on all of the money borrowed and spent today.

In a monumental display of political cowardice (in a city with its fair share of cowardly behavior), House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has announced that this Congress will not pass a budget this year to tell the American people how it intends to pay for all of this spending, or even which wasteful programs it will (pretend to) cut out of the budget.  This will be the first time that neither house of Congress has even considered a budget since the Budget Act was enacted in 1974.

Keep in mind that in 2006, Steny Hoyer said enacting a budget was “the most basic responsibility of governing.”  The alibi that Majority Leader Hoyer is peddling for this lapse is that he wants to wait until someone else does the work for Congress.  He wants to hold off until President Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform offers its recommendations, which will be conveniently be made after the November elections. 

Yet, Congress has awarded and appropriated millions of dollars to itself for the purpose of preparing, passing and enforcing a budget.  Both the House and the Senate spend approximately $9 million each year to staff a Budget Committee for this job.  Congress also has access to the resources and expertise of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to get a budget passed.

It is a required duty of Congress to pass a budget each and every year to let the American people know how their money will be spent.  In fact, the Chairman of the House Budget Committee, John Spratt (D-SC) stated clearly in 2006 that “If you can’t budget, you can’t govern.”  Leaders in Congress should be embarrassed by their abject failure to provide the most basic component of governance.  A failure to plan is a plan to fail.

– Roger Morse