The Obama Administration Apparently Doesn’t Know How The Budgeting Process Works
These are strange times in national politics. Republicans are accusing Democrats of not passing a budget for 2012, and of making no plans for passing one for 2013 either. Democrats counter by suggesting that the Budget Control Act, which created the so-called “super committee” (which accomplished exactly nothing), was a budget. That’s a claim that a) doesn’t jive with how the law defines a budget and b) is at odds with the fact that the Obama administration is presenting Congress with a budget.
On CNN, Obama Chief of Staff Jack Lew was given the unenviable task of having to explain why the Obama administration is introducing a budget to Congress while Democrats in Congress claim they’ve already passed one. During his rather strained defense, he claimed that it takes 60 votes to pass a budget in the Senate.
“You can’t pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes and you can’t get 60 votes without bipartisan support,” said Lew. “So unless… unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid is not going to be able to get a budget passed.”
That’s a strange statement coming from a member of the Obama administration. After all, who better than they know that budgets can be passed through the Senate with just a simple majority? It’s called the budget reconciliation process, and its use in passing Obamacare was extremely controversial.
The Senate could pass a budget. The truth is that Democrats don’t want to pass a budget.
Tags: budget, deficits, jack lew, jacob lew, national debt, obamacare
