Posted by
Always To The Right on Thursday, September 24, 2009 1:10:10 PM
Democrats control a solid majority in the House of Representatives.
They have a nearly filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate. Their
party controls the White House. With all of that power, one would
expect the budgetary process to flow smoothly enough for Congress to
pass appropriations normally, especially since budget bills are not
subject to a filibuster in the Senate.
What the heck are Democrats doing on Capitol Hill?
Democrats played this game for the 2009 budget in order to avoid
having to negotiate the budget with outgoing President George W. Bush.
They stalled through continuing resolutions and then passed a
pork-filled omnibus bill early this year, which Obama obligingly
signed. Obama has hardly demanded spending discipline from this
Congress and has shown nothing but obsequious obeisance to Nancy Pelosi
and Harry Reid in allowing them to shape the actual bills for his
legislative agenda all year long.
They have no excuse in 2010. Bush is no longer the problem.
Republicans don’t have the votes to stop a budget bill without serious
conflict within the Democratic caucuses. This is flat-out incompetence
and failure to focus on Congress’ primary responsibility of producing a
budget for the upcoming fiscal year on time.