MrRodgers
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Joined: 7/30/2005
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quote:
ORIGINAL: BamaD
quote:
ORIGINAL: MrRodgers
I didn't realize how angry I was about what the House and Senate are doing…or, more accurately, not doing…until I heard someone who should know better say that Congress would be “returning to work” this week after being out of town for its Memorial Day recess.
Yes, representatives and senators will be coming back to Washington. But saying that Congress will be returning to work is so ridiculous that it should become the standard definition of an oxymoron , that is, of a self-contradictory phrase that can’t possibly be true.
Lowlites:
The Senate has done even less than the House. The Senate Budget Committee has used the phony excuse of wanting to see what the House does before deciding how to do a budget resolution of its own. As a result, the Senate so far hasn’t done anything this year on the budget and it’s increasingly obvious that it won’t.
(For the record, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act requires that Congress adopt a budget resolution each year by April 15, that is, almost two months ago. It doesn’t require that the House go first or mandate that the Senate wait for the House to act.)
Indeed, given how few days are left before the start of the fiscal year (the House is only scheduled to be in session for 33 days between now and October 1; the Senate is only scheduled to be in session for 46), and the strong likelihood that there will be little-to-no legislative business conducted on some of these days, it’s very possible that Congress won’t act an any of the fiscal 2017 appropriations and that a CR covering all federal departments and agencies will be needed.
All these hearings accomplished was to prove the long-held common wisdom among federal budget wonks that Congress tries to do something about the budget process whenever it can’t or won’t do something about the budget itself.
New laws:
My anger increased further when I realized that at least some of the representatives and senators who attended these hearings actually believed that changing the process would make a difference. This was in spite of the fact that (as I told both committees) Congress would defy any new rules with the same impunity it was using to flout the old ones. HERE
Stan Collender I'm the founder of the blog Capital Gains and Games. I moved to DC after getting a graduate degree in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley and have been involved with the federal budget and congressional budget process throughout my entire career. In addition to being one of the few people who has served on the staffs of the House and Senate Budget Committees, I'm the author of The Guide to the Federal Budget, which was published annually from 1982 to 2000 and was one of the most-assigned texts on the topic.
I founded and edited Federal Budget Report, a newsletter that was published for almost two decades. I've also written weekly columns on the budget for NationalJournal.com and Roll Call. I'm currently an executive vice president at Qorvis MSLGROUP, where I work closely with financial services clients. I frequently speak on federal taxes and spending.
The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.
How do you feel about Obama not even submitting budgets or is that not as bad because Republicans blah blah blah.
Berating presidents for not submitting budgets has been a partisan congressional fetish for many years and doesn't count for much especially given any congress from the opposing party. However, most of Obama'a have been submitted and the last 3 were Feb, April (3rd attempt) and this year...Feb. so way ahead of time and plenty time for the repubs to shit on it or pass one of their own which is what they've been doing anyway.
It has been the dems twice and the repubs before and after that have dragged their feet. Still, while the dems are no angels, they don't demagogue on their great success in running govts. like the repubs do every two years.
The repubs since Reagan continue to demagogue old tired ridiculous policies that don't work like cutting taxes created jobs. That does not. Cut corp. taxes will create jobs. It does not. The whole supply side bullshit is just that...bullshit. And has been said by GHWB and David Stockman Voodoo economics and just trickle down crap.
Yet every repub candidate still claims that is what this country needs. They call for deregulation of wall street and banking and that will create jobs and increase lending, That will not and just put taxpayers at risk for more investment paper-trading bullshit if not more fraud.
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You can be a murderous tyrant and the world will remember you fondly but fuck one horse and you will be a horse fucker for all eternity. Catherine the Great
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.
J K Galbraith
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RE: Are you as angry ? I am - 
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