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Friday, December 21, 2007
2007 Budget Endgame: A Re-Capitulation
The Devils in the Details
Now that Congress has completed its work on the budget for 2007, we can take a critical backward glance at the process and where it ended up. Althought there are silver linings, as noted in 2007 Budget Endgame: Recapitulating the "Capitulations", in the main,
it's not a pretty picture.
I'm not talking about the 1,400 pages in the budget bill or the roughly 10,000 earmarks in them that it is subject of endless (often misdirected) attention. Truth told, this year's earmarks -- all those devils in the details -- are 25 percent less costly than last time around. Nor about the incidental though regretable violation of the PAYGO principles, a violation that congressional leaders would do well to repair early in 2008 before they are rightly accused of abandoning fiscal responsibility for good.
For President Bush can take care of all of that all on his own very well, thank you very much -- as today's Washington Post informs us.
I'm talking about feigning and fecklessness on budget policy and process demonstrated this year by our elected leaders in Washington. If we look back at the final budget picture for 2007, this may be what we are left with:
When the 2007 budget battle is recalled, no doubt people will remember the Democrats' fruitless negotiations with themselves, the President's veto madness and late-term discovery of fiscal frugality, and the two parties hurtling year-end on a breakneck course toward government shutdown. They will recollect the Big Blink, as leaders Reid and Pelosi seemed to cave in a series of capitulations, accepting final budget numbers that looked as if they had taken dictation from Bush. But maybe they will also read the fine print and see all those Democratic devils in the details.
Posted by Dana Chasin
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