Earmarks And Irresponsibility:
But here’s the kicker: most of us probably know that budget resolutions have tended to be passed very late recently. For me, at least, it was just a general impression of dysfunction, not a pattern I’d tried to nail down. Look what you find when you do:
“It has been nearly 20 years since congressional failures left the government to be financed under spending guidelines and formulas rather than line-by-line policymaking. But to federal budget experts, this year’s breakdown was hardly surprising. Not since 1994, the last year of Democratic control, has Congress actually passed all of its spending bills. (Emphasis added.)”
The Congressional Republicans have done Democrats a great favor by making it so easy for us to seem competent by comparison. But they have done the country no service at all.
My household is directly impacted by this, as our chief source of income comes from a government service wage-earner. Raises for government employees are delayed as result of the outgoing “Do Nothingest” congress and when they are approved, they will be taxed at the highest rate — 28% — rather than the marginal rate of the wage-earner’s usual salary.
Thanks for nothing, you power-mad morons. Oh, we’ll get it back in a tax refund — in 2008.
Jerks.
There’s a poll to vote on (with heavily skewed responses, š ): consider this an open thread if you have other ideas to bring up.