Fiscal budget causes fiasco

Eleven-fifteen p.m. on a Friday evening is not the most convenient time for breaking national news that affects each and every American, yet it was the earliest President Obama, Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could come up with a deal that would prevent a government shutdown that was scheduled to take place at midnight that Friday.

The crucial national news for that evening was of course the fiscal budget that was six months overdue. The U.S. is currently $14 trillion in the hole. Continuing any longer without a fiscal budget would have proved to be disastrous.

The federal government’s fiscal year begins on October 1. This means that Congress presents the budget for the fiscal year to the American public on that day. Oct. 1, 2010 came and went but there was not a fiscal budget presented.

At the time, Democrats controlled the House and Senate as well as the presidency. With the midterm elections a mere five weeks away they knew that they were going to lose the House to the Republicans. Rather than develop a fiscal budget for the upcoming year the Democrats cashed in their losses and decided to play the martyr card.

The 111th Congress took office in January without a budget. The 111th Congress is comprised of a House of Representatives dominated by the GOP and a Senate still controlled by Democrats. As a result, the responsibility to develop and present a fiscal budget for the year fell to the House Republicans. Developing a fiscal budget for America involved significant budget cuts to entitlement programs which the Democrats did not want to do but knew they would have had to if they had done their jobs.

Presenting the nation with a new fiscal budget provided an extremely negative spotlight for House Republicans. In the days prior to the budget announcement, Democratic Party leaders such as Nancy Pelosi went on tirades about protecting government entitlement programs for the poor and the elderly.

In the end, $38.5 billion was cut from the budget, according to CNN.com. Loosely translated, no one got exactly what they wanted.

Liberal media outlets lauded the event as “the most significant budget cuts in history.” The event was not historical. It was a disaster that should have never happened and easily could have been avoided if the members of the 110th Congress had fulfilled the requirements of their position.

Conservatives fought valiantly to defund Planned Parenthood and National Public Radio.

Carrie Budoff Brown of poltico.com said it best.

“Social conservatives lost Round One against Planned Parenthood, but they got a taste of what’s possible and vowed Saturday to return for more.”

Sadly, Planned Parenthood and NPR will continue to be funded by taxpayer dollars.

“We’re not finished with this, the fiscal year 2012 budget is just around the corner. We are going to continue to work to defund Planned Parenthood,” Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America said in an interview with Politico.com.

The fight for the restoration of the fiscal budget is far from over.

“President Obama is expected to address the long-term debt in a speech this week,” Jeanne Sahadi said in an article on CNN.com.

Now more than ever, it is important to contact your congressmen and senators to fight for fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget.