The Democrats, the party that promised accountability, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and an end to reckless pork barrel spending, have just “deemed as passed” a completely hollow budget resolution that does little more than create a $1.12 trillion faux shell, with the details to be filled in later as House Democrats see fit. Republicans of course used “deem as passed” on numerous occasions, but never in such a nefarious way.
Connie Hair from Human Events writes:
The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.
Never before — since the creation of the Congressional budget process — has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget, then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.
This is indeed unprecedented. Generally, the “deem as passed” process is used when there is a consensus in the House that certain items within the larger budget framework would pass a voice vote, but the House does not have enough time to formally put a detailed resolution or amendment up for a vote before it breaks for recess. It goes without saying that under traditional circumstances, a formal budget resolution or itemized spending plan has always been in place before the House “deemed as passed” any smaller part of the budget.
As you may recall, House Democrats still have not passed a budget resolution for fiscal 2011, but yesterday’s vote gives them over $1 trillion to spend with none of the spending constraints that a budget normally imposes — including estimates for the deficit gap between collected revenues and proposed spending.
House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) appropriately summed up the Democrats’ budgetary shenanigan: “Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office rang the latest fiscal alarm with the release of The Long-Term Budget Outlook. Today, Congress again hit snooze. To avert a fiscal and economic calamity, Washington needs to wake up.”
Hopefully the American people will make November 2, 2010 a wake-up call the Democrats aren’t likely to forget.
