It has been something over 1000 days since the Congress has passed a budget. Hard to believe isn't it? You're asking yourself how, then, can they still be spending money. They're doing it by passing continuing resolutions. I guess the political climate is just too spoiled for the Dems and Reps ubs to come to a spending agreement.
One of the things I really don't understand about our federal government today is why can't Obama sit down with the leaders of Congress and produce a budget? The process we have today is totally out of whack. Yesterday, Obama submitted a budget to Congress and it was immediately labeled as dead on arrival by the Republicans. Even the Democrats were non-supportive of the president's budget. The best they could do is keep their mouth shuts and say nothing except for Emanuel Cleaver (Dem from Missouri) and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus who called Obama's budget a, "...nervous breakdown on paper.."! Why does it have to be this way?
No rational organization develops a budget like this. I work for a Fortune 500 company and at every level the budgeting process involves meetings in which all the stakeholders bring their thoughts together in a meeting room. They decide on spending targets and then there's a constructive give and take in which everyone weighs-in to establish spending priorities. I'm also on the administrative board of my church and we pretty much follow the same practice.
How difficult would it be for Obama or Speaker of the House John Boehner or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to schedule budget writing sessions for the three months leading up to the budget deadline. No one's going to get everything they want but they could surely hammer out a compromise budget that wouldn't be "dead on arrival" the day it was introduced!!
How can grown men and women act so childish when so much is at stake? Pray for leaders to emerge who will move past the political gamesmanship we see in Washington today.
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