March 20, 2006
Bush II; Day 498: The Senate has a brand new bag
Retro-correcting for administration failures.
This time I'm not talking about retroactively OK'ing Bush's illegal wiretapping activities.
This time I'm talking about a new habit of increasing the federal debt limit, so they can release budgets that exceed the old debt limit. That's just-in-time management if I ever saw it. Or I actually should say just-in-time mis-management.
The latest example:
The Senate narrowly approved a $2.8 trillion election-year budget Thursday that broke spending limits only hours after it increased federal borrowing power to avert a government default.The budget decision at the end of a marathon day of voting followed a separate 52-to-48 Senate vote to increase the federal debt limit by $781 billion, bringing the debt ceiling to nearly $9 trillion.
Another lovely side note from the budget:
The Senate budget bill would clear the way to opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, but the outlook for that provision is uncertain given strong resistance by Republican moderates in the House and a long legislative route before final approval.
Of course there were Democrats and Republicans who defected from their majorities on these issues. And sure, Democrats and Republicans urged increased spending in areas like health programs and the like. These politicians are in a politically untenable situation: spending cuts will piss people off, meanwhile the population is getting jsut a teensy bit nervous about how badly our nation is in debt...andparticularly conservative Republicans are wondering what the hell is going on.
Well, what's going on is that as long as Dubya and the majority party insist that the tax cuts for the wealthy are not on the table, each individual Congressperson is kinda screwed. This NY Times piece explains why more fully. Key excerpt:
Lawmakers, analysts and others said the Senate's reluctance to clamp down on spending was a natural result of an approach that fails to recognize a sharply changed reality. In some respects, the administration and Congress act as if the surplus that greeted President Bush when he checked into the White House is still in the bank, rather than recognizing that whatever windfall was available then was eaten up and more by tax cuts.The reality is that the cuts, plus two wars, new domestic security needs, natural disasters and a big expansion of Medicare have left the government's account badly overdrawn with no prospect of getting it back in balance anytime soon.
The criticisms set out by many Democrats - that no real progress can be made in setting the nation's finances right until Congress proves willing to revisit the tax cuts and that the nation is failing to invest sufficiently in addressing its economic and social ills- do not receive much of a hearing in a Washington where Republicans are in charge.
[snip]
"The problem we have had on the budget all along is a lack of adult supervision on the part of the White House," said Bruce Bartlett, an economist and author of a new book critical of Mr. Bush's economic record. "You can't blame members of Congress for looking out for their parochial interests. It is the president's responsibility to look out for the national interest."
[snip]
Almost lost in all the budget and spending activity was that House and Senate negotiators continue to try to hammer out an agreement for new tax cuts that could cost an additional $70 billion over five years.
Eek! Feel overwhelmed yet?
