On spending, Congress can’t agree on easy stuff
Putting the tit for tat aside a moment and just looking at the pure logistics the next move on this is in the house. So to me they get no recess and need to get called back to do their jobs and come up with a funding bill that will actually pass. Since congress as a whole is dysfunctional to the point of rippling economic markets the people need to send them all a message, Republican, Tea Party, and Democrat alike: “Get back to work and get your damned job done right so America can go back to work.”
Congress is once again allowing shutdown politics to bring the federal government to the brink of closing.
For the second time in nine months, lawmakers are bickering and posturing over spending plans. The difference this time is that everyone agrees on the massive barrel of money to keep the government running for another seven weeks.
“It is embarrassing,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., admitted Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Warner asked: “Can we, once again, inflict on the country and the American people the spectacle of a near government shutdown?”
At issue is a small part of the $1.3 trillion budget intended for an infrequent purpose: federal dollars to help victims of floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters and whether some of the expense should be offset by cuts in other government spending.
This sort of crisis management has cost Congress credibility in the eyes of the electorate, with about eight in 10 Americans disapproving of the institution’s performance after this summer’s debt crisis. A major credit agency downgraded the nation’s ratings as a result, unnerving the world’s financial markets.