Posted on 02/03/2012 3:54:37 PM PST by SeekAndFind
It's been more than 1,000 days since the Senate has passed a budget, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is unconcerned. In fact, he says he has no plans to bring a budget to the floor in 2012, either. He argues the 2012 budget is already done because last summer's debt-ceiling deal included a few spending caps. Essentially, Reid wonders: Why do we need a long-term spending plan when we can stumble into some spending caps here and there? The Hill was first to this story:
“We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year — it’s done, we don’t need to do it,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters on Friday, echoing previous statements from his office.
Reid and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) argued that the debt-limit agreement in August directs spending for the next year and that Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) has already asked the heads of the subcommittees to write their bills for fiscal 2013.
Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) has said he would probably mark up a budget resolution this year to appease ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), but Reid said he didn’t expect any floor action on any measure produced by the panel. …
Schumer said it is a “total falsity” for Republicans to say that Democrats haven’t passed the budget: “we passed it on Aug. 2.”
“They’re attacking us because they have nothing better to do,” Reid said. “They need something else to talk about.”
If what Reid and Schumer are arguing is that the Senate doesn’t need to pass a formal budget resolution to enable the government to spend taxpayer money irresponsibly, then they’re right. For the past couple years, while the Senate Budget Democrats have sat on their hands, failing to submit a budget resolution to the full Senate, the Senate Appropriations Committee has still authorized ungodly amounts of discretionary spending.
But if what Reid and Schumer are saying is that they’ve followed the law and submitted a budget resolution, then they’re flat-out wrong. The Congressional Budget Act requires the president to submit a budget to Congress by Feb. 1 every year. The Senate Budget Committee is to report a budget resolution to the full Senate by April 1. The House and Senate are to reach agreement on a concurrent budget resolution by April 15. Senate Budget Democrats haven’t submitted a budget since 2009.
Here’s why it matters: The Appropriations Committee determines levels of discretionary spending. Approps don’t touch mandatory spending. But mandatory spending constitutes about 60 percent of all federal spending — and mandatory programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security drive our deficits and debt. Without the imposition of budget discipline, these programs grow on autopilot.
By never submitting a budget, enacting a few discretionary spending caps as a part of the Budget Control Act (a.k.a. the debt ceiling deal) and punting to the Super Committee that also punted on entitlement reform, Democrats avoid any difficult discussion of how to ensure the solvency of our entitlement programs. With no plan of their own on the table, they’re free to shoot down anything Republicans propose.
It’s no secret why no one wants to touch entitlements — but it is still the shame of Washington that nobody will.
THANKS FOR SENDING REID BACK TO TORMENT AMERICA, NEVADA. GOOD JOB /Sarc
The commie ‘RATS don’t need no steeenkin’ budget. They just print all the money they want. Who needs a budget when you own the machines that print out more money?
I wonder if there’s a legal way to compel them to submit a budget....could they be forced into court over this? I’m just curious...don’t know enough about it but it infuriates me that they just ignore parts of our laws that they want to ignore.
Nope can't do that, that's what a rational party leadership would do!
Blame Las Vegas, they were the ones to did it.
Part of the last debt ceiling increase, you know the one that keeps bringing nasty surprises, they “deemed this year’s budget passed” at the baseline level. And the Stupid Party went along with it.
Throw a crooked land deal in it (for him and his family), and this crook will ram a budget through.
“””Thank you Boehner and McConnel. You two sure make life easier for the dems to enact their policies through the back-door”””””””””
It’s ok, they cried before they caved.
wasen;t his son in charge of all vote counts
His son ran for Governor and lost, thank God.
Don’t forget that it was the GOP establishment elites who undermined Sharon Angle’s campaign. All because they prefer Harry Reid to a tea party candidate.
Remember that when they come calling for our votes to elect their guy, Romney.
To be honest I’m just not a party person willing to go out and vote straight ticket and kiss the bxtts of party aficionados. Actually I despise Party politics.
When I look at the Democrats and their leadership such as Pelosi and Reid etc, I have to shake my head in disbelief because none are effective and/or positively represents their Party.
I’ll say there are Republicans too I’d support much before McConnell, Boehner and Cantor.
The leadership positions should have term limits and evaporate after 2 terms and then others should get a chance. These perpetual Congressmen and Senators are a problem.
Here is one for you. WHY DON’T WE BOYCOTT ANYTHING FROM OR IN NEVADA UNTIL REED IS GONE?
Why should a whole nation be held hostage by the senator from one state with such a small population? There are casinos all over the nation. Let Reno and Vegas rot. See how the SEIU likes that.
Why does the majority of the landmass of the nation have to take this crap?
If we focus on one area at a time to punish them we could win one small victory at a time.
From this day forward I will not buy a thing made in Nevada nor patronize any corporation based there.
Hey. Las Vegas real estate at peak of the late bubble bore valuations vastly closer to reality than anyone’s positive (or zero or even negative) assessment of “professionalism and dedication” on the part of Distinguished Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who incidentally happened to score enormous quantities of money through his infamous but completely legal “Reid estate” corruption scheme.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
