The Senate has not passed a budget since 2009. The reasons are manifold; the reasons are pretty pathetic. Filibusters aren’t part of the excuse, because budgets can be passed on 51 votes.
And so, every year around this time, Republicans force votes on multiple budgets in order to embarass the administration and to plant their own flags. Democrats comply with a vote on the Ryan budget, to get Republicans – none of whom, really, are endangered this fall – on the record for “ending Medicare.”
Just a reminder. It’s a nice tradition, and the unanimous vote against the White House’s budget allows Paul Ryan’s office to issue statements like this.
On the 1,113th day since Senate Democrats last passed a budget, the U.S. Senate considered a series of budget resolutions, none authored or supported by a single Senate Democrat. The national debt has eclipsed the size of the entire U.S. economy, yet the Democrat-controlled Senate has failed to pass a budget for over three years. They chose again this year not to even propose a budget. While a series of Republican budget proposals received support today, the President’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget was rejected 0-99 – with every single Democrat and every single Republican voting against the President’s fiscal plan.
And so on.
