2013 Budget Debate: A New Standard For Crazy

Stan Collender Capital Gains and Games April 20, 2012

If you weren't convinced that anything related to the federal budget on Capital Hill is completely nuts this year, just think about these three things, all of which are happening this week:

1. The House is putting together a FY13 reconciliation package based on the GOP/Ryan plan it passed earlier this year even though (1) reconciliation is required to be based on the budget resolution conference agreement between the House and the Senate, (2) there will be no budget resolution conference report agreement this year and, therefore, there will be no reconciliation, and (3) nothing the House considers for its own private reconciliation has any chance of actually (or perhaps ever) being enacted.

2. The Senate Budget Committee is trying to mark up a FY 13 budget resolution that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has already said will not be considered by the full Senate.

3. The budget resolution that will be offered in the Senate Budget Committee is based on the plan proposed by the two chairs of the Bowles-Simpson commission that is thoroughly discredited after (1) the commission itself failed to approve it and (2) the House resoundingly rejected a similar plan just weeks ago.

Note: This would be worthy of a skit on The Daily Show or Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live if it weren't so incredibly sad.

Stan, you ain't seen nothing yet. I realize you're commenting on the budget process, but the level of crazy we are going to see leading up to the election from the right will put everything else they've done so far to shame. When you have nothing to lose...

I don't think any of this is "crazy", in the sense of being driven by a faulty or delusional perception of reality. These political actors are doing these things for very rational reasons, it's just that their reasons do not relate to actually enacting appropriations bills. Rather, their reasons are electoral: to be able to hammer their political opponents with the opponents' failure to vote for their proposed "commonsense" spending bills.

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RSS Feed Recent comments Too many politicians are not 6 hours 43 min ago Bowles-Simpson wand-waving 11 hours 35 min ago I'm with Anonymous at 9:22am. 11 hours 54 min ago I don't think any of this is 17 hours 51 min ago on the other hand... 18 hours 51 min ago more Advertising

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2013 Budget Debate: A New Standard For Crazy

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