I am looking at a deadlocked Congress, a do nothing President and another possible government shut-down on Friday. Part of the problem is that we have a government of divided power and an unwillingness to compromise by either side.
But while we are borrowing 42% of every dollar we spend - we still do not have a budget for the third year in a row. This is unconscionable and is, in my view, caused by a lack of Presidential leadership and the wrong leadership in the Congress. Even when the Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress, we did not have a budget.
What if we required a complete annual budget approved by Congress in order to appropriate any funds. All appropriations would require a reference to a line item in the current budget. Any emergency appropriations which are not in the budget would require a super majority of 2/3 of Congress to be passed.
In my view this would not require the passage of legislation to be enacted. The House and Senate could pass such a requirement into their own rules of each chamber. Only the House would have to pass it initially since all appropriation bill must originate in the House. If they can't pass a budget - then they can all pack up and go home in my view. Continuing resolutions would not be available without a budget. (period...exclamation point) No bill could be considered if not brought up pursuant to a budget being in place.
We could also require single issue legislation by the same mechanism of operating rules in each Chamber. If we eliminate the attachment of amendments and riders each measure would have to stand on its own and stand on its own merits in the glare of the public scrutiny.
Canada - our good neighbor to the North - has already addressed some of these problems and their economy is stronger than ours at the moment. The Canadian Dollar is worth more that the US Dollar for the first time that I remember in my life. Do they really have more political resolve to do the right thing than we do? It looks like that is the case.
The Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives. They could enact local rules in the House chamber that would guide us out of our current problems. What are we waiting for. Now would be a good time.
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