I previously wrote about the budget deal negotiated by Paul Ryan and Patti Murray. Today, that deal is likely to be passed by the Senate and to go to president Obama for his signature. One thing that has been truly annoying about the deal is that the coverage in the media has been mostly political; who won, who lost, what effect will this have on the Tea Party, were Democrats hurt by giving up on unemployment benefit extensions, etc. There has been almost no coverage about the most important benefit of the deal: the return to what is called "regular order" on Capitol Hill. Regular Order is the way that funds have been appropriated by Congress for the last 200 plus years; it was used almost exclusively during that time. All that it means is that Congress considers and then passes separate appropriations bills for each part of the government. If a program of the Commerce Department is a failure, Congress can defund it in the appropriations bill. If a part of the Interior Department is doing a critical task and needs more money, Congress can increase its funding. Under regular order, Congress is supposed to look at each part of the government and decide how much to fund it for the following year. It is, perhaps, the single most important method for Congress to provide oversight and control to the federal government.
Regular order was abandoned by the Democrats when president Obama came into office. No budgets were passed; no appropriations bills considered; and no oversight provided. Instead, Congress started using continuing resolutions to fund the government. These resolutions just fund the government and its parts at roughly 107% of what they received in the previous year. For example, if the Department of Indian Affairs got ten billion dollars in 2009, then, after the passage of a continuing resolution, that department got 10.7 billion in 2010 and 11.45 billion dollars in 2011. The Democrats used this method because it allowed them to increase government spending in dramatic fashion without having to debate that increase in a way the public understood. Remember that in 2009, the Stimulus Bill was passed which added enormous spending to the federal government (it was an increase of over 30% in spending). With this new and huge increase in spending, the base from which all those 7% increases were imposed under the continuing resolutions was much higher than before. This was a principal reason why federal spending got so out of control.
After the 2010 election and the victory of the GOP in the House, the spending issue came to the forefront. In the Summer of 2011, the Sequester was put in place. What this did, in simplest terms was to limit the automatic spending increases applied to continuing resolutions. Instead of a 7% increase, there was a much smaller one (like 2%) and the increases and decreases were directed at particular programs. This resulted in actual spending cuts for defense and for many domestic programs, while other areas of the government continued to grow (like entitlement spending). In the simplest terms, the Sequester took away from the Democrats their plan to increase spending through the back door by the use of continuing resolutions and automatic increases.
The new budget deal returns the process to regular order. It also lifts some of the restrictions of the Sequester and replaces them for the next two years only with figures that will permit about a 0.8% increase in federal spending. Remember, that tiny increase in federal spending is permitted; it is not mandated. The congressional committees will now review the agencies and departments that they supervise, decide on appropriate spending levels and appropriate the funds. Instead of all programs of 2009 getting an across the board increase or decrease, there should be a reordering of priorities to reflect current needs. Congress will get to determine spending in the most positive way.
I know that the most likely outcome of all this is that every penny allowed to be spent will indeed be spent, but you never know. I am certain, however, that before the appropriations bills get passed there will be some level of oversight provided by Congress. Some oversight, even by Congress, is a big improvement over the situation that has in been in place for the last five years.
Regular order was abandoned by the Democrats when president Obama came into office. No budgets were passed; no appropriations bills considered; and no oversight provided. Instead, Congress started using continuing resolutions to fund the government. These resolutions just fund the government and its parts at roughly 107% of what they received in the previous year. For example, if the Department of Indian Affairs got ten billion dollars in 2009, then, after the passage of a continuing resolution, that department got 10.7 billion in 2010 and 11.45 billion dollars in 2011. The Democrats used this method because it allowed them to increase government spending in dramatic fashion without having to debate that increase in a way the public understood. Remember that in 2009, the Stimulus Bill was passed which added enormous spending to the federal government (it was an increase of over 30% in spending). With this new and huge increase in spending, the base from which all those 7% increases were imposed under the continuing resolutions was much higher than before. This was a principal reason why federal spending got so out of control.
After the 2010 election and the victory of the GOP in the House, the spending issue came to the forefront. In the Summer of 2011, the Sequester was put in place. What this did, in simplest terms was to limit the automatic spending increases applied to continuing resolutions. Instead of a 7% increase, there was a much smaller one (like 2%) and the increases and decreases were directed at particular programs. This resulted in actual spending cuts for defense and for many domestic programs, while other areas of the government continued to grow (like entitlement spending). In the simplest terms, the Sequester took away from the Democrats their plan to increase spending through the back door by the use of continuing resolutions and automatic increases.
The new budget deal returns the process to regular order. It also lifts some of the restrictions of the Sequester and replaces them for the next two years only with figures that will permit about a 0.8% increase in federal spending. Remember, that tiny increase in federal spending is permitted; it is not mandated. The congressional committees will now review the agencies and departments that they supervise, decide on appropriate spending levels and appropriate the funds. Instead of all programs of 2009 getting an across the board increase or decrease, there should be a reordering of priorities to reflect current needs. Congress will get to determine spending in the most positive way.
I know that the most likely outcome of all this is that every penny allowed to be spent will indeed be spent, but you never know. I am certain, however, that before the appropriations bills get passed there will be some level of oversight provided by Congress. Some oversight, even by Congress, is a big improvement over the situation that has in been in place for the last five years.
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