Previously, Congress decided that it wouldn’t pass a budget this year – for the first time since 1974.
Apparently, our elected reps concluded that no budget would be easier to defend during this year’s election campaigns than a budget with a staggering deficit.
No Budget from Congress for the first time since 1974.
Congress to busy spending and regulating they have no time for budgeting.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced that, for the first time since 1974, the House will not pass a budget resolution this year.
Without a House budget, no final and binding budget can be enacted.
As the House Rules Committee website explains, “The budget resolution provides Congress with the opportunity to lay out its spending, revenue, borrowing and economic goals and serves as the vehicle for imposing internal budget discipline through established enforcement mechanisms.”
No budget means no caps on discretionary spending, and makes it severely unlikely that the Bush tax cuts will be extended, raising taxes on low- and middle-income families in the midst of a recession.
http://www.valuesvoternews.com/2010/05/no-budget-from-congress-for-first-time.html
Now, the WSJ reports that White House budget director Peter Orszag will be leaving his post in July.
Though he lied thru his teeth on ObamaCare economics, he’s known as one of the few deficit hawks hanging around the White House.
So, this can’t be good news. We’ll be getting another spend, spend, spend ideologue, for sure.
WSJ, Obama’s Budget Chief to Step Down June 22, 2010
White House budget director Peter Orszag, one of the most visible members of President Barack Obama’s economic team, will be leaving his post in July—the most senior official to leave the Obama administration, according to two knowledgeable administration officials.
Mr. Orszag helped steer through Congress a $797 billion economic-stimulus bill in his first weeks at the White House job before becoming one of the driving forces in shaping the health-care law.
In the fall, the administration will begin the arduous process of putting together the fiscal 2011 budget amid some of the greatest budget pressures in modern U.S. history.
Mr. Orszag, a man who made his name as a budget hawk, first at the Brookings Institution, then at CBO, failed to make a dent on a deficit swollen by spending that shot up during the economic downturn and stayed high as Mr. Obama pushed spending … to restore economic growth.
The deficit is lingering at nearly 10% of the gross domestic product.
Even under the president’s assumptions on declining health-care spending and a freeze on non-security domestic spending, the deficit would not drop to what Mr. Orszag has called sustainable levels over the next decade without a sharper policy response.
The Homa Files 