The Democratic senate has been avoiding a budget for purely political reasons, unwilling to put in a single bite the current spending or proposed tax increases where they would have to vote and take public stands on them. (Much like the Bush administrations continual trick of keeping the wars ‘off budget’ and dealing with them through ’emergency spending.’) However, the lack of a Senate budget has no practical effect on spending at all as Budgets do not have the force of law.
While it does slide right past that the President signs the spending bills into law the focus of the video is on the Debt Ceiling and there it is correct. Raising the debt ceiling is not as I have heard too often from conservative commenters ‘giving Obama a blank check.’
Bear
It also ignores the fact that the democrats have been blocking an actual budget for the last four years, all four at the senate level and the first two at the house side.
Brad
Clearly we are in the very best of hands! And four more years of this to go.
Yes it’s true that spending bills and tax bills must originate from the U.S. House of Representatives, but the video ignores the important role the President has in setting spending and tax policy, because without the signature of the President a bill changing tax rates or a bill setting spending levels does not become law (aside from the very unusual case of over-riding a presidential veto)
So the video gives a very misleading impression of the Presidents responsibility in setting tax and spending policy. It’s spin designed to absolve the President of any fault in the current problems relating to deficit spending and the national debt.
The Democratic senate has been avoiding a budget for purely political reasons, unwilling to put in a single bite the current spending or proposed tax increases where they would have to vote and take public stands on them. (Much like the Bush administrations continual trick of keeping the wars ‘off budget’ and dealing with them through ’emergency spending.’) However, the lack of a Senate budget has no practical effect on spending at all as Budgets do not have the force of law.
While it does slide right past that the President signs the spending bills into law the focus of the video is on the Debt Ceiling and there it is correct. Raising the debt ceiling is not as I have heard too often from conservative commenters ‘giving Obama a blank check.’
It also ignores the fact that the democrats have been blocking an actual budget for the last four years, all four at the senate level and the first two at the house side.
Clearly we are in the very best of hands! And four more years of this to go.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323482504578225620234902106.html
Inaccurate in some important respects.
Yes it’s true that spending bills and tax bills must originate from the U.S. House of Representatives, but the video ignores the important role the President has in setting spending and tax policy, because without the signature of the President a bill changing tax rates or a bill setting spending levels does not become law (aside from the very unusual case of over-riding a presidential veto)
So the video gives a very misleading impression of the Presidents responsibility in setting tax and spending policy. It’s spin designed to absolve the President of any fault in the current problems relating to deficit spending and the national debt.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/federalbudgetprocess/a/budget_page4.htm