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August 27, 2010

House weakens budget process while deficits are soaring

Anonymous The Independent The Daily Independent Fri Aug 27, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

ASHLAND — At about the same time legislators in Frankfort were meeting in special session to enact a two-year budget that should have been approved six weeks earlier, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives were adding a new kink in the already broken budget process in Washington, D.C.

House Democrats decided to shirk a basic congressional responsibility by not even passing a budget resolution this year. It will mark the first time the House will have done so since the current budget process was put in place in 1974.

In truth, congressional budget resolutions are little more than mostly meaningless numbers on paper. They are nonbinding, and GOP-run Congresses did not pass final resolutions in 1998, 2004 and 2006. Nevertheless, the resolutions do impose benchmarks and some order and discipline in a process that constantly threatens to become a spending free-for-all.

The Senate Budget Committee passed its budget resolution in April, but it has yet to come to a floor vote. It may not do so, since the House’s inaction makes the Senate resolution irrelevant.

House Democratic leader Steny Hoyer promises that the House will enforce spending limits even stricter than what President Barack Obama proposed in his budget. Hoyer argues that it makes no sense to enact a long-term budget until the president's deficit-reduction commission makes its report in December, after the midterm elections.

That’s just a crutch. It is the job of the House of Representatives and Senate the oversee federal spending. With the federal government gushing red ink at an alarming rate, it certainly is no time for actually reducing the odds of restoring a degree of sanity to spending in Washington. But that’s exactly what the House’s action — or should we say inaction — does.

We can see why House Democrats would prefer not to go on record as voting for a document that calls for spending more than $3 trillion in fiscal 2011. Similarly, Democrats don’t want to draw attention to projections showing the government running an annual deficit of $1 trillion over the next five years or so.

Our complaints about our legislators in Frankfort over the budget process have been frequent and justified, but the problem is much worse in Washington. At least our legislators are required by the Kentucky Constitution to have a balanced budget, and that restriction prevents legislators from going on the type of reckless spending sprees that have become the norm in Washington.

In Frankfort, when spending exceeds revenue, legislators are forced to make spending cuts, as they have had to do repeatedly during this recession. In Washington, when spending exceeds revenue, Uncle Sam just borrows more money while our elected leaders hide their head in the sand and spend, spend, spend.

Maybe not approving a budget resolution is no big deal for Democratic leaders in the House, but to us, it just gives our representatives another excuse for irresponsible spending

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House weakens budget process while deficits are soaring

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