No matter what measure you use, government spending has increased since 1965. Total government spending has more than doubled. Federal spending per household has increased from $11,431 in 1965 to $29,401 in 2010, for an increase of nearly 162 percent. That would all be fine if revenues had kept pace — if, in the same time period, the United States hadn’t also acquired more than $15 trillion in debt.
Under the Obama administration, the deficit and debt has only increased — and, to make matters worse, for all three years of Barack Obama’s presidency, the federal government has indulged in high levels of spending without an official budget. What could possibly be the result of such directionless spending other than unprecedented deficits and increased debt?
The Democrat-controlled Senate is directly to blame for the lack of a budget. Even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, the Congress didn’t bother to pass a plan. Now that Republicans control the House, the House has passed a comprehensive budget plan — but the Senate has still done nothing. The Senate is the true do-nothing chamber, but the president will almost assuredly blame the House as the inactive chamber.
At that point in the president’s speech, tweet this video:
Update: This post originally made it sound like Democrats controlled all three branches of government early in Obama’s administration. As the judicial branch can’t technically be controlled by a party, that was misleading. The post has been corrected above to reflect that Democrats controlled the House, Senate and White House in the first two years of Obama’s presidency.
Update II: Misfit Politics’ inimitable music group, “Just as Good as Ezra,” has recorded an instant classic song “1,000 Days (Without a Budget).” Enjoy!
Update III: Congressional Republicans will also mark this day when they attend the State of the Union address tonight. They plan to wear red “1,000 Days” buttons to the speech.
Will any of this prompt the Senate to actually pass a budget? It’s doubtful. If I had to place a bet, I’d bet against the Senate putting forward a plan between now and November. But we have to at least try — and I’ll be thrilled if Harry Reid proves me wrong!
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