Whatever happened to "regular order"?
Posted 12-15-2014 at 12:00 AM by dechatelet
The past few years have seen Congress pass omnibus spending bills that are nothing more than a green light for the federal government to keep spending without any significant changes whatsoever.
These bills are called "continuing resolutions," and they allow Congress and the President to avoid actually looking at the federal budget and making changes.
Normally, committees in the House and Senate debate and pass appropriations bills for the various departments of government.
Those bills then go to conference committee where the Senate and House work out their differences. Then the final result is submitted to the president.
Throughout this process, the public has an opportunity (via watching C-Span) to see what is going on and to weigh in on the process.
None of that has been happening for the last several years.
With Congress exercising no budget authority, the real authority in government comes down to the bureaucrats in the executive branch who have great latitude in determining how the money given to them is spent.
The president has authority over the federal bureaucracy, but Congress does not. But even the president cannot oversee every detail of spending by the executive branch.
So what we have is government on automatic pilot with little to no oversight.
This means a government that is basically out of control.
Watchdog agencies (the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office) have documented an estimated $300 billion PER YEAR in waste, fraud and abuse in government spending.
Nothing has been done about this for the last six years -- that's $1.8 trillion down the drain.
Why the continuing resolutions instead of Congress doing its duty? The main reason is divided government.
The Republicans who control the House and the Democrats who control the Senate can't even pass bills on things they agree on, such as entitlement reform.
But the Republican House has at least made some efforts in this regard. About 300 bills have been passed by the House and sent over to the Senate where they have died on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's desk.
Maybe the Republicans were the "party of No" a long time ago, but it is the Democrats who have been obstructing legislation ever since the middle of President Bush's last term.
In other words, for the last eight years.
But you would hardly know this listening to the mainstream media, which never fails to cover for the Democrats.
There is another possible reason for the "do-nothing" Congress. Taking actual votes in committee and on the floor of the House and Senate leaves a record that voters can examine and thereby hold legislators accountable.
How much more convenient it is to not have to make those votes on controversial issues. Instead of doing the hard work of governing, you can spend more time raising money for your next campaign and attacking the other party.
The incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been talking about getting back to regular order. I think he actually will.
The Republicans have nothing to hide -- we all "know" they're evil and can do no right as far as the mainstream media is concerned.
It's the Democrats who now have to worry. A voting record is something that can be checked.
These bills are called "continuing resolutions," and they allow Congress and the President to avoid actually looking at the federal budget and making changes.
Normally, committees in the House and Senate debate and pass appropriations bills for the various departments of government.
Those bills then go to conference committee where the Senate and House work out their differences. Then the final result is submitted to the president.
Throughout this process, the public has an opportunity (via watching C-Span) to see what is going on and to weigh in on the process.
None of that has been happening for the last several years.
With Congress exercising no budget authority, the real authority in government comes down to the bureaucrats in the executive branch who have great latitude in determining how the money given to them is spent.
The president has authority over the federal bureaucracy, but Congress does not. But even the president cannot oversee every detail of spending by the executive branch.
So what we have is government on automatic pilot with little to no oversight.
This means a government that is basically out of control.
Watchdog agencies (the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office) have documented an estimated $300 billion PER YEAR in waste, fraud and abuse in government spending.
Nothing has been done about this for the last six years -- that's $1.8 trillion down the drain.
Why the continuing resolutions instead of Congress doing its duty? The main reason is divided government.
The Republicans who control the House and the Democrats who control the Senate can't even pass bills on things they agree on, such as entitlement reform.
But the Republican House has at least made some efforts in this regard. About 300 bills have been passed by the House and sent over to the Senate where they have died on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's desk.
Maybe the Republicans were the "party of No" a long time ago, but it is the Democrats who have been obstructing legislation ever since the middle of President Bush's last term.
In other words, for the last eight years.
But you would hardly know this listening to the mainstream media, which never fails to cover for the Democrats.
There is another possible reason for the "do-nothing" Congress. Taking actual votes in committee and on the floor of the House and Senate leaves a record that voters can examine and thereby hold legislators accountable.
How much more convenient it is to not have to make those votes on controversial issues. Instead of doing the hard work of governing, you can spend more time raising money for your next campaign and attacking the other party.
The incoming Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been talking about getting back to regular order. I think he actually will.
The Republicans have nothing to hide -- we all "know" they're evil and can do no right as far as the mainstream media is concerned.
It's the Democrats who now have to worry. A voting record is something that can be checked.
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