Appropriations Process: Still Broken
Last year, I named the entire Congressional appropriations process as the Biggest Government Waste of 2007.
I am unhappy to report that this year’s appropriations process in on track to repeat the distinction.
This morning’s DC Examiner has the details:
The 2008 budget year ended yesterday, but Congress hasn’t approved a single one of a dozen annual appropriations bills needed to keep the federal government functioning on a day-to-day basis. Hence the $630 billion stop-gap measure, nearly the size of the failed Wall Street bailout. It passed the House on a 370-68 vote even though, as Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., candidly admitted, “very few people have any idea what’s in it.” Cornered House members had less than 24 hours to review the 357-page bill and 752 pages of accompanying material before being forced to either pass it - or shut down most of the federal government today.
But wait! There’s more! This time, Congress isn’t just shirking its Constitutional duty. It’s ignoring its duty on purpose!
House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, D-WI, who helped Pelosi craft the earmark-stuffed bill, admitted that the Democratic leadership deliberately decided to “kick the can down the road” and wait for a new president who presumably won’t veto future earmark-laden legislation. This may be a good partisan strategy to protect the special interest recipients of all that pork, but Pelosi & Co. were elected to protect the people who pay the bills.
So, the process is still broken. The appropriators are going out of their way to hide their activity from voters. And the result is gobs and gobs more government waste.
I ask you, fair readers: What can and should be done about this? How do we get Congress to hear the message?
Tags: appropriations, congress, david obey, democrats