The Issues, No. 52 - Congress and the Spending Bills for Fiscal 2009

Congress has had a tough year. It has had to contend with the financial crisis, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the upcoming elections for 35 Senators, all 435 Congressmen, and the President. Congress was so busy, in fact, that once again it did not pass the Fiscal Year 2009 spending bills for the government on time. Instead it passed a huge continuing resolution that allows government agencies to spend at fiscal year 2008 levels through March of 2009.

The fact that Congress was busy during the recent months probably didn't have as much to do with it not passing the 2009 spending bills as the fact that the Democratic Congress didn't want to fight with President Bush over spending issues during his last months in office. But whether Congress was busy or whether it wanted to avoid confrontation with President Bush doesn't really matter. Maybe the most important thing Congress has to do is to fund the federal agencies and it just can't ever seem to do it on time. Year after year Congress passes continuing resolutions to keep government going because it can't pass the spending bills on time. And every year this situation is disruptive to the government agencies who have to cut back, in many instances, on services they provide to the American people.

I think this behavior is unacceptable and I think the American people should demand that their representatives in Congress take care of their business on time. The example that Congress sets by its failure to carry out its most important function on time is terrible. We and especially our children get the message from it that it's not important to do anything we are supposed to do when we are supposed to do it and that we can just take some token form of action that will just have to do until we feel like getting around to it. Maybe this very type of behavior is a reason why we are in the financial mess that we're in. Maybe if Congress had paid attention to the warning signs when it first got them, the whole financial mess could have been avoided. But undoubtedly there were political reasons why Congress didn't act sooner and the country ends up suffering because of it.

Congress is in desperate need of a wake up call. We can give it to them in the upcoming November elections by not voting for any incumbent Senator or Congressman. We can phone their offices, write them letters, send them email, or show up at their offices and let them know that we want them to do what they are supposed to do and we want them to do it on time. I think it's time we let Congress know that we want them to work together for America, that we don't want them playing partisan politics, and that we don't want them working solely for their own career advancement.