Reading Between the Headlines: We STILL Need BINDING Federal Budgets
“ In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Thomas Jefferson
With all the recent media coverage regarding federal budgets, as always, it's important for us to read between the Headlines. When we do so today, we learn that "politics as usual" leads to the american people being forced to adopt one of two extremes. Political gridlock, or proposing federal budgets which do very little to attack our fiscal problems at the core.
Here at Compact for America, we understand (and presume you do to) that yearly politically charged arguments over federal budgets and whether or whether not to extend the capitals already well “vaulted” debt ceiling fails to address the root of our fiscal problems.
As federal budgets are proposed, we must remember that it is both impractical and immoral for us to think we can add to an already enormous debt with no consequences. But, there’s hope, because we continue to see articles like this one popping up. Yet, another article that does a good job of highlighting the fiscal dangers we face by hoping the federal government will keep our best interest in mind and restrain itself.
This Deseret News editorial piece released yesterday does a good job of laying out just how ineffective the latest federal budget measure will be in binding our federal governments power over the American purse in any meaningful way, when it says…
“The Senate’s budget resolution, which took until 3 a.m. last Friday to pass after hours of politically charged amendments and grandstanding, certainly won’t count for much. The budget resolution is nonbinding. It doesn’t require a presidential signature because it doesn’t have the force of law. The real work of budgeting begins when House and Senate leaders get together to appropriate money to fund programs.”
Sad but true. And, unfortunately, we all know what this means. More political gridlock that will only serve to kick our most pressing fiscal problems down the road, and from there, it’s only a matter of time (and money/debt) before we’re hearing and seeing the same political song and dance.
In the end, the federal government doesn’t have any interest in “couples dancing” with us (the American people). They like to “raise the roof” at the spending party. This is why, short of using the safe, secure, and speedy Compact for America, the federal government can’t be trusted to bind itself and pass budget solutions that actually address our fiscal problems.
