An Election Reminder: The Democrats Did Not Pass A Budget For Next Year (For The First Time Ever)

From The American Thinker:

September 10, 2010


A little election reminder: Congress has not passed a 2011 budget

Monte Kuligowski



Byron York has a great piece out that highlights the awkward position of congressional Democrats who voted for ObamaCare. With the midterm elections fast approaching, the once-celebratory Democrats are now silent about their "historic" achievement.



Healthcare "reform" was so urgent and important that no one had time to read its two thousand pages, much less have honest debate before C-SPAN cameras as Obama promised. Reading it alone would have taken "two days and two lawyers to find out what it means" and they simply didn't have time for that. Moreover, reading the bill was unacceptable because they had to "pass the bill so you can find out what's in it," as Ms. Pelosi put it.



It is an understatement to say that the public despised the callous demagoguery and unethical dealings; and the way in which the bill was passed into law on party-line votes at the midnight hour. And the more the public finds out "what it means" the more it is despised. So passing ObamaCare hasn't exactly turned into a campaign catchphrase for Democrats seeking reelection.



The implications of "what it means" to the average taxpayer is becoming clearer and the ridiculous fiscal claim associated with ObamaCare isn't going away. You remember, the claim that ObamaCare would insure 30-40 million more Americans while simultaneously reducing the federal deficit. ObamaCare was promised to lower insurance costs, insure everyone and save billions at the same time!



In light of reality meeting Obama-style rhetoric, the House has failed to pass a budget for the fiscal year 2011. (The Democrats wouldn't want to draw attention to just how many trillions the Obama/Pelosi/Reid spending spree is actually costing taxpayers.) This is an unprecedented phenomenon: we saw the first Congressional budgetary non-action since the creation of the Congressional budget process in 1921.



Well, actually I shouldn't say Congressional "non-action" because Pelosi and her Democrats did "deem" a budget passed.



Connie Hair wrote about the "deeming" in her article "House Democrats ‘Deem' Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed,'" back when the Democrats passed the despicable piece of legislation.



Ms. Hair's piece opens as follows:





Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that ‘deemed as passed' a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the ‘deeming' document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget.



The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.





The "mainstream" media largely yawned at the unethical "deeming" story back in July when it should have been major headline news.



It should have been big news in July.



Although now, without having a budget passed for 2011, it is screaming election season news in September.





Posted at 10:36 AM