President Biden says the House Republicans that want to shut down the government are not doing their job. True! But the same is true of every other legislator in the House and Senate. There are no angels in this fight. The Congressional Appropriations process is broken and needs to be fixed.
The only specific responsibility of the Congress mandated by the Constitution is to fund the government. Both Houses of Congress and both parties are failing to properly fulfill this responsibility. Each year Congress is supposed to pass, through regular order, 12 Appropriations Bills before the beginning of the next fiscal year. This process, if followed, allows for robust debate on the individual spending items in each bill. But, as in many prior years, with the start of fiscal 2024 approaching, Congress has passed exactly ZERO of those individual Appropriations Bills.
And so, again as in many prior years, Congress is about to kick-the-can-down-the-road and pass a series of Continuing Resolutions. These Resolutions do not permit robust debate over the merits of most individual spending items. Then, just before the end of the calendar year, Congress will pass an “Omnibus Spending Bill”. This monstrosity will be thousands of pages long. It will not allow for debate on individual spending items. And it will be passed with only a handful of Leaders and Staff having any idea what is in it. It is so huge that most Senators and Congresspersons will not even be able to read it before voting.
Worse yet, these Omnibus Bills become a must pass “Christmas Tree” into which lobbyists will have found a friendly Appropriator to insert legislative provisions with only the most strained and tangential relationship to funding the government. Virtually every lobbyist in D.C. has tried this ploy – I know that I did! And many succeed.
So, I totally agree that it is wrong to shut down the government. Full Stop. Butthe GOP hardliners have a legitimate point. The current process is no way to run the government.
So, what to do? We voters should elect only candidates who agree to (1) insist on passage of all 12 Appropriations Bills each year and (2) agree to support a substantial Congressional pay cut (pick a %) in any year that Congress fails to do so.
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