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Opinion Across The Fence Bush right: Congress fails at its job As I listened to the president's press conference Tuesday, I found a couple of points where he and I were in full agreement.
Congress isn't doing its job. When it comes to our nation's budgetary process, there is no way to ignore its complete lack of responsibility. Its propensity for missing deadlines related to appropriations bills is legendary. Congress is given specific responsibility for taxation and spending. By design, appropriations bills fund the various areas of government, such as health, transportation, energy, education, defense, agriculture and commerce. In recent years, the functional categories of the budget have expanded to 20, and currently include Function 970 relating to spending allocations for the global war on terrorism. The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 established the federal budget process. It coordinates legislative activities on the budget resolution, appropriations bills, reconciliation legislation, revenue measures and other budgetary legislation. Section 300 of that act provides a timetable to ensure Congress gets its job done before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1. The process begins with the submission of the president's budget to Congress on the first Monday in February. By the middle of the month, the House and Senate budget committees receive economic and budget outlook reports from the Congressional Budget Office. By April 15, Congress should complete action on the budget resolution, and by the end of June the House should have completed action on annual appropriations bills. In the real world, deadlines mean something. I don't know of workers in many occupations who aren't faced with a time frame for project completion. If deadlines aren't met, jobs face jeopardy. But U.S. senators and representatives don't live in the real world, do they? Back in the late '80s, the budget assignment was easier. Congress only had 12 appropriations bills to pass each year. Even then, those individual bills almost never were completed. Instead, lawmakers lumped all of the appropriations into one huge omnibus bill. Those documents historically exceed 1,000 pages. The omnibus spending bill for FY 2008 was more than 3,000 pages. These plump vehicles for pork barrel projects have become habitual. And they are an absolute abdication of congressional responsibility. Common sense dictates that few, if any, elected representatives in the House or Senate took the time to carefully comb through the details of that legislation before voting on it. Standard practice is for lawmakers to rely on aides to do the homework and to give them summaries. The very fact that Bush held a press conference could be indicative of the level of concern floating through the hallowed halls of Congress and the West Wing. At the top of his list of concerns was immediate support for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac home mortgage programs supported by the federal government. He declared the nation's financial system to be "basically sound," but still urged Congress to move quickly to help the mortgage giants "during this time of financial stress." I'm not sure about the president's distinctions, but too much stress can certainly undermine the structural integrity of any system. Even though Bush said, "I don't think the government ought to be involved in bailing out companies," his administration didn't hesitate to announce an emergency rescue plan that increases the line of credit the Treasury extends to the two companies. Treasury also said it would, if necessary, buy stock in the companies to make sure they have enough money to operate. That fact doesn't necessarily jibe well with Bush's assertions that the plan isn't a "bailout." In an effort to reassure us common folks in the wake of the recent failure and government takeover of California bank IndyMac, Bush repeatedly said the federal government insures bank deposits up to $100,000. I'm wondering how many depositors the government could actually cover if the banking industry falls flat on its face. I'd bet some of us would be left out in the proverbial cold holding an empty bag. Bush was right on another point: We didn't get into this mess overnight, and we won't get out of it that quickly either. The only way that we will get past the rough spot is for Congress to do its job, including effective oversight of the executive branch, meet deadlines and make informed decisions that will put this nation back on solid footing and steer it away from the blood-sucking self-interests of lobbyists and special interest groups who are draining this nation's economic life blood. Bush finally said something today that might be worth putting in the quote books: "Politics are an assault on common sense." Amen, brother. Now, for the next few months, kindly step away from your political agenda and allow common sense to prevail. Kathie Greer: Columnist and consultant for the Amarillo Independent. She can be reached at kathie@amarilloindy.com E-mail
comments about this story Posted: July 17, 2008
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