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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (583)	3/17/2005 6:06:03 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

A Budget, Not A Mirage Mark it down as a minor miracle; Congress has finally agreed to a little enforcement discipline against run away spending, thanks to a band of Republican House Members who stared down their leadership. That was the good news this week, as 25 or so hearty conservatives, most of the back-benchers, demanded that Congress means what is says when it passes a budget. That is, they wanted some guarantee that the spending limits they approve at the beginning of the year - which are announced with great fanfare - will be enforced at the end when fewer Americans are watching. That hasn't been the case for decades. The current Congressional budget process was designed by Democrats (and passed over a Watergate weakened Richard Nixon's veto in 1974) expressly designed to disguise how much Congress spends. An annual budget resolution is passed each spring, but it lacks the force of law and the members routinely exceed it when they pass individual spending bills. Republicans deplored all of this when they were in the minority, and "budget process reform" was a rallying cry through the 1980's. But now they are running the asylum, they don't want spending accountability either. Last year they exceeded their budget limit by $500 million, and the leadership bitterly fought any reform. Enter the revolutionary 25. They united to oppose the week's budget resolution unless they were allowed to file "a point of order" on the House floor if individual spending bills exceed their budget resolution limits. Congress could still spend the money, but it would require a floor debate and majority support. "The rank and file believe it is important that Members of the majority have the power to enforce the budget of the majority," says Indiana's Mike Pence, one of the ringleaders. "We want a budget, not a mirage." Because the budget resolution is usually a party line vote that all Democrats will oppose, these 25 Members could have defeated the resolution this week if they hung together. .... Wall Street Journal Op Ed I added this: johnshadegg.house.gov