Question

Based on your understanding of government budgeting, do you think that continuing resolutions negate the legitimate necessity for congress to actually pass a budget? Additionally, if this does bypass the general functionality of congress, does this also essentially allow politicians to bypass responsibility for deficit spending?

Answer 1

The primary aim of the request for a budget is to officially lay out the position on fiscal policy of the administration. It details particular policy modifications that the administration wishes, how these modifications will impact expenditure and tax revenue over the next 10 years, and how they will impact individual organizations along the manner.

The budget provided fairly accurate estimates of how much each of these proposals was anticipated to cost or increase, respectively, and estimates of how this would impact the general trajectory of the deficit (down) and rates of expenditure and income. What should then happen is that each house's appropriation committees pass particular expenditure bills authorizing cash for multiple discretionary operations, including defense and any non-defense expenditure that does not go to "obligatory" programs such as social security or food stamps. These bills are more specific but align with the number of expenditures set out in the budget resolution. In practice, this process is not performed by Congress as it is "expected" to be performed. When there is divided control of the House and the Senate, budget resolutions are often not enacted at all, and expenditure policy is either made through "ongoing resolutions" — bills that indicate that expenditure will continue to chug as before with zero modifications— or bipartisan agreements at the last minute have been hashed out

Even if there is unified government control, the process often runs at a delay of weeks or months, either because of differences between branches or because Congress has been bound up in other businesses. However, one important factor is that while budget resolutions can be passed by a easy majority vote— as can "budget reconciliation" bills— bills of appropriations, last-minute expenditure agreements, and ongoing resolutions are normal laws subject to a filibuster.