Continuing Resolution passes US House and Senate

When 2305's start looking at the budget, we will discuss what "the budget" is and what it isn't. It is a statement declaring what revenues and outlays are to be over a given period of time, but it is not a binding document. The budgets I asked 2305s to discuss in this week's assignment are better considered as being political - not fiscal - instruments. The Constitution says nothing about budgets or a budgetary process, only that funds cannot be drawn from the treasury if an appropriations bill has been passed to authorize it. But the recent dysfunction in Congress has even made that problematic, and more recently the US government has been funded by a series of short term funding measures called continuing resolutions.

Here's Wikipedia's definition of a continuing resolution: A continuing resolution is a type of appropriations legislation used by the United States Congress to fund government agencies if a formal appropriations bill has not been signed into law by the end of the Congressional fiscal year. The legislation takes the form of a joint resolution, and provides funding for existing federal programs at current, reduced, or expanded levels.

If the resolution is not passed - assuming that the appropriations bills have not passed either - they money cannot be drawn from the treasury to fund government agencies and they have to shut down. At least those that perform non-vital programs do.

We will cover this more fully later, but I bring it up now because the US House and Senate have passed continuing resolutions in order to avoid a shutdown - which tends to be unpopular.

Here are the stories that provide detail:

- Congress moves one step closer to avoiding a government shutdown.
- House to approve bill to keep government running.
- House approves resolution to keep government running; bill heads to White House.

This guarantees funding until September 30th, when further funding can be subject to hostage taking again.

CBO releases budget outlook

As required by law, the Congressional Budget Office released its budget outlook for the next 10 years. It's meant to provide a basis for the formation of each year's budget. It's just released it outlook for 2013-2023 - click here to access it. Commentary from Wonkblog here.

They offer some graphs that put the current budget in historical context:

The White House misses another budget deadline

The National Journal tries to find out why.

This year, the White House pushed the blame onto Congress and its inability to avert, ahead of time, the impact of the fiscal cliff, the massive combined tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to go into effect right around the end of 2012. Jeffrey Zients, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, explained the delay in a Jan. 11 letter to House Budget Committee Chairman and former vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan.

"As you know, the protracted 'fiscal-cliff' negotiations ... created considerable uncertainty about revenue and spending for 2013 and beyond," Zients wrote. "[B]ecause these issues were not resolved until the American Taxpayer Relief Act was enacted on Jan. 2, 2013, the administration was forced to delay some of its FY 2014 budget preparations, which in turn will delay the budget's submission to Congress."

When asked whether the budget would come before or after the president’s Feb. 12 State of the Union address, White House press secretary Jay Carney on Monday said only, “I don’t have a date for you for when that will happen.”

Federal law mandates that it be submitted between the first Monday in January and the first Monday in February. It is generally submitted just prior to the state of the union speech which then serves as a platform to promote it.

Paul Ryan unveils budget - Provides Alternative to Obama's - No chance it will pass the Senate

Here is a link to Ryan's plan.

And to stories and comments about it.

- The NYT.
- The Hill.
- Washington Post.

Commentators note that Ryan's budget cuts taxes and discretionary programs, while preserving defense spending. Also that it is, at the end of the day, just like the president's budget, a political document. The document also lacks specific details about whose taxes are cut.

Last year, Ryan's budget plan was used by Democrats against the party, Politico suggests that they may be able to repeat the feat.

Commentary on the CBO's economic forecast

Two items from the the Bipartisan Policy Center, each comments on the CBO's recently released budget and economci forecast:

1 - It’s That Time of Year Again!


2 - The Twelve Takeaways from CBO’s 2012 Budget and Economic Outlook

CBO Report: The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022

As promised in today's 2302 classes: the CBO report on the Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022.

This kicks off Congress' part of the budgeting process.

The Fiscal Year 2013 Budget

President Obama introduced his budget to Congress today. Here's a stories related to it:

- WaPo: Read the document here.
- NYT: Obama Uses Budget to Set Election-Year  Priorities.
- WaPo: Five things to watch in the Budget.
- WaPo: Two comparisons with current policy and Paul Ryan's plan. Taxes and Spending.
- WaPo: Winners and losers.