Democrats shy from budget so they can bash GOP
April 28, 2012 -- 8:00 PM
Three years ago today, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a budget. It has not done so since. A lot has happened since then. On April 29, 2009, Sarah Palin was still governor of Alaska. Chris Christie was a long-shot candidate for governor of New Jersey. Charlie Sheen was just another famous actor. Quarterback Andrew Luck, the first pick in this week's NFL draft, had yet to play in a single college football game.
Never before has the Senate gone three years in a row without passing a budget. Since 1974, when Congress adopted the modern budget process, there have been several years when House and Senate negotiators did not agree on an identical budget that passed both houses. But according to the Congressional Research Service, there was only one year prior to the Obama era when the Senate did not pass any budget -- that was 2002, when the majority Democratic Senate did not approve a budget for fiscal 2003.
If the Democrats had built up a track record as responsible stewards of the national balance sheet, perhaps they could justify living without a budget. But the nation's deficit has exceeded a trillion dollars in each of the last three years, and federal spending topped $10 trillion over that time period. According to trustees reports released this past Monday, the nation's long-term debt from just two programs -- Medicare and Social Security -- has now reached a staggering $63.3 trillion.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has argued it's unnecessary to pass a budget this year because it would be nonbinding anyway, and spending levels for fiscal 2012 and 2013 were set by last summer's deal to raise the debt ceiling. But this is a poor excuse.
Even when control of government is divided and a final resolution is impossible, a budget is a way for a party to lay out a vision for the future of the country. Like it or not, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has presented, and the House has passed, a plan that outlines how Republicans think they can put the nation on a sustainable fiscal course. Senate Democrats have excoriated the Ryan plan and its reforms to Medicare and Medicaid, but they haven't offered a competing vision that achieves the same goals through their preferred means.
This should come as no surprise. Any attempt to tackle the nation's mounting debt without touching social programs will require massive tax increases -- not just on Warren Buffett, but on all Americans -- that Democrats would prefer not to advertise. Such policies would depress the economy and trigger a backlash from middle-class voters.
And so rather than release a budget that would open them up to criticism during an election year, Democrats have opted to shirk their duties so they can have a freer hand to attack Republicans. This is what three solid years of political cynicism looks like.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2012/04/examiner-editorial-democrats-shy-budget-so-they-can-bash-gop/543861 |
