Hello, Lame Duck Party
Look at these Congressmen and women with attitudes
Ice Cube ft. Dr. Dre & MC Ren remixed with The Notorious B.I.G. explain for us today why a short-term continuing resolution is a raw deal for the tax payers. What I like to call the “election hedge” usually occurs during a Lame Duck session, the time between the election and when the new congress begins. We discussed what happens during this time from the regulations side, which are called Midnight Regulations. But this post is in regards to the budget process and Congress.
The budget process is confusing, but one thing you need to know is that the budget for next year must get approved by Congress and signed by the President by September 30th. If this doesn’t happen the government shuts down...
Unless they can do their jobs and pass a budget on time. But it doesn’t happen often these days, only 4 times in the last 16 years. That’s 25%. If I get a 25% in class I flunk, but if Congress does it they get a 96 percent re-election rate.
A continuing resolution
From the all mighty wiki: Traditionally, the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate agree together on a budget resolution in the spring that is then used to determine spending limits for twelve regular appropriations bills. The twelve appropriations bills then appropriate the funding for the federal government to use for the next budgetary year. The appropriations bills must be signed into the law by the President, although the budget resolution itself is not subject to his or her approval.
If Congress fails to appropriate the necessary funds for the federal government, the government shuts down as a result of the Antideficiency Act. The law “forbids federal officials from entering into financial obligations for which they do not have funding,” such as buying ink, paying for electricity, or paying employees.
Congress can avoid a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution instead. Which can be any length of time needed to get the budget appropriation bill finished.
The short-term means “Wait 3 months, we’ll keep the lights on then we will figure out the budget for next year in December.”
But wait aren’t elections held in November? Yes, yes they are. Why wouldn’t they just pass it before the election? Well some of the Congressmen & women are going to lose their upcoming elections, but they still want to control the budget for next year — especially if they won’t be there. Insert Ice Cube ft. Dr. Dre & MC Ren:
I started this gangsta shit
And this the motherfuckin thanks I get?
That’s how Congress men and women feel if they lose in their upcoming reelection. They started so many things and this is the thanks they get.
So both sides play up the fear of whatever they are interested in at the time to get their main issues into the budget and just like Ice cube says:
The motherfuckin world is a ghetto
Full of magazines, full clips, and heavy metal
Hyperbole language to invoke a reaction — at least Ice Cube did it so he could rhyme, what’s Congress’s excuse? With the help of high profile cases, they are inclined to fight a little harder for zika funding, or to cut planned parenthood funding, etc. Basically it doesn’t matter what the platform is, as long as they get to win their little battle.
Why is this process bad?
Short-term CR’s almost always exceed spending caps, which are set in the previous years budget. Even though the Republicans (aka the fiscal “conservatives”) are in the majority, it doesn’t changed the fact that Lame Duck sessions make it rain on special interests and are generally a raw deal for, you, the taxpayers.
The 2012 “fiscal cliff deal” busted the bipartisan spending caps established in the 2011 Budget Control Act, allowing for an additional $47 billion in government spending.
2014 wasn’t any better. Once again a long list of wasteful federal programs received more taxpayer-funding. The Lame Duck spending bill included an additional $284 million above the caps. It was the most heavily-lobbied bill of the year. More than 200 lobbyists were deployed on Capitol Hill to make sure that the $1.1-trillion package had goodies for their clients.
Basically Ice Cube says it best:
When the smoke settle
I’m just lookin’ for a big yellow
In six inch stilettos
This year will be no different. After the smoke settles and Congress passes this year’s short-term CR, they will be looking for a big yellow (a women or man in yellow) in six inch stilettos (or Cole Hahn’s) provided by the lobbyist who’s back they scratched.
What is coming down the pipeline this year?
We have a wide variety of ridiculous programs up for Lame Duck spending, such as a roughly $19 billion tax-extenders package (including tax breaks for NASCAR, Hollywood studios, or green energy super-powers) and a taxpayer-funded bailout for insurers participating in the Affordable Care Act.
Unfortunately, all the signs are present that Republicans will cave and give lobbyists and Democrats all that they want. As a starting point, they are about to agree to a short-term continuing resolution that will avoid the risk of a shutdown at the end of September but maximizes the chances of a spending binge come December. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Harry Reid and Representative Steny Hoyer, along with most Democrats and President Obama, all want a short-term CR.
It’s crazy how incentives matter, right? And what does that tell you? The Notorious B.I.G. comes in to explain:
Loungin’ black, smoking sacks up in acts
And sidekicks with my sidekicks rockin fly kicks
Honeys want to chat
But all we wanna know is “Where the party at?”
Congress is looking to party — on your dime. They are rocking fly kicks and so are their sidekicks, they are asking “Where the party at?” But this year, we should let them know no parties are happening because we can’t afford it. As seen in our total public debt relative to total domestic output of production, below.
The only thing that would help our debt would be passing a Short term-CR instead of a budget on time, right? No.
The right thing to do would be to pass a longer-term CR — a 6-month bill — that would protect us from many egregious congressional shenanigans by getting us past the lame-duck session. Then, Congressmen and women who are more accountable (i.e. up for re-election and not lame ducks) can fix the real issues at hand driving the national debt out of control, entitlements and defense spending. These will be the topics of my next two posts.
