The most important function Congress serves is to debate and pass the federal budget. I know—it also levies taxes, imposes or relaxes regulations, and once in a while nudges our social, economic, or political order in a meaningful way. But the budget tells the government what to do and makes it possible to do it. Everything else follows from that.
Even at the best of times, passing a budget is a test of Congress’s abilities. And these aren’t the best of times. Its two houses are controlled by Republicans who don’t see eye to eye. The White House is in the hands of a Democratic president who really doesn’t agree with them.
So to get a budget enacted into law, everyone involved has to negotiate seriously. They have to make realistic political judgments about what’s possible. They have to compromise. Given our divided government, you'd think that everyone would step up to these challenges.
Early in the year, following the GOP’s takeover of the Senate, it seemed as though they might. Gone, at least in rhetoric, were the days of shutdowns, sequestration, and the fiscal cliff. The “regular order” of committee hearings and duly marked-up appropriations bills would be restored.
In the House, Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers accomplished something that hasn’t been managed for years: all 12 appropriations bills made it out of his committee. But that’s where the good news ended. For the bills themselves were largely political statements that had no chance of being enacted, as they contained provisions that were anathema to Democrats—including President Obama, who made it clear he had no intention of signing them.
