Whenever something goes wrong, we try to figure out what or who is to blame. To do that appropriately, we first have to know what was suppose to happen. With that in mind, let’s consider the government shutdown. What was suppose to happen?
The Federal government of the United States uses a budget process to create the United States federal budget. The framework is used by Congress and the President of the United States to formulate the budget and was established by the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, and by other budget legislation. (continued here)
About.com has a similar article, US Federal Budget Process.
This federal budget process document is a quick primer outlining the steps taken as the budget moves from concept to reality. (continued here)
Once upon a time, the Democratic Party was a bit more conservative. Instead of using brinksmanship to get what it wanted, tying up the entire government, Democrats created a process that broke the budget into parts, and Congress voted on individual parts of the budget.
Finalizing A Budget
House and Senate Appropriations Committees hold hearings, taking testimony from OMB, executive agency officials and others. Each subcommittee is charged with developing one appropriation bill:
- Agriculture, rural revelopment, Food and Drug Administration
- Commerce, Justice, State, Judiciary
- District of Columbia
- Energy and water development
- Foreign operations, export financing
- Homeland Security
- Labor, Health and Human Services, Education
- Legislative Branch
- Military construction
- Transportation, Treasury, General Government
- Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Independent Agencies
There are some parlimentary rules that make these bills unique. For example, Senators cannot filibuster the budget resolution or a reconciliation bill. (from here)
To resolve our current government shutdown standoff, House Republicans are trying a piecemeal approach. Consider what The Washington Times reports.
Here the Democrats in Congress reject funding those parts of the budget causing the most immediate grief.
With the government shutdown closing national monuments and sending federal office workers home, House Republicans changed tactics Tuesday and tried to pass individual spending bills that they said would restore money to high-profile programs such as veterans affairs, national parks and the Smithsonian Institution.
But House Democrats, backed by a presidential veto threat, blocked the bills, saying that while they supported the spending, it was unfair for Republicans to make them pick and choose from popular programs. (continued here)
In House GOP adds NIH, National Guard to shutdown bill strategy, The Washington Times explains what they expect the House GOP to do next. Note our glorious leader’s objection.
But the White House budget office said President Obama “strongly opposes” those bills and would veto them if they were to reach his desk.
“Consideration of appropriations bills in a piecemeal fashion is not a serious or responsible way to run the United States government. Instead of opening up a few government functions, the House of Representatives should re-open all of the government,” the budget office said in a statement vowing the veto. (continued here)
Even though the budget process calls for the consideration of individual appropriation bills in a piecemeal fashion, our glorious leader calls that irresponsible. Nevertheless, when we want to simplify a problem, don’t we break it up into smaller parts? When we want to make certain everyone approves of each individual item in a budget, why wouldn’t we break it into parts?
In a republic, we are suppose to do our best to respect each others rights. When we do not have to do so, we should not force people to pay for things they do not want.
The fact is the majority of the people of this nation do not want Obamacare. Obama and the Democrats want it. With the most rank hypocrisy, they accuse Republicans for being responsible for the standoff. Yet they are as guilty as they can be. Obama and the Democrats should be ashamed. Instead, they have shown themselves to be shameless liars.
- Who Really Shutdown the Government (caldwellteaparty.org)
- No Compromise: House Democrats Kill GOP Proposal to Fund Veterans Services, National Parks Without Touching Obamacare (theblaze.com)
- Gov’t shutdown: No progress on ending stalemate (news.yahoo.com)
- What Is The Real Reason We’re Facing A Government Shutdown? Hint: It’s Not Obamacare (addictinginfo.org) (Note this article ignores the individual appropriations bills. Also note: Senate passes first budget in four years. The Democrats in the Senate have no interest in playing by the rules.)