Barry And Harry: America’s Obstacles To Fiscal Responsibility

(Mike Chamberlain/The Cranky Hermit) – As talk of a government shutdown looms one fact seems to have gotten lost in many of the media reports. The reason we are here is that the Democrats, when they controlled the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Presidency, refused to pass a budget – the most basic task of the government.

The reason for this is unknown. Possibly, it was due to the potential political backlash from the public discovering the amount of spending it would have contained (about $4 trillion). Whatever the reason, with Democrats firmly in control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency, no budget bill passed last year.

As a result of this refusal – Sen. Reid never even brought a budget up for a vote – Congress has been forced to pass a series of continuing resolutions to fund the government on a short-term basis. Rather than having a budget for an entire fiscal year, this CR process must be repeated every few weeks.

Despite promises of fiscal responsibility, Democrats continue to fight even modest cuts in spending.