Senate Budget - An Exercise In Futility

Friday night (and well into Saturday morning) the United States Senate completed a marathon session. But at nearly 5 o'clock in the morning they accomplished something they hadn't been able to do for the last four years (thanks to abuse of the filibuster) -- they passed a budget (on a 50 to 49 vote). All Republicans and four Democrats voted against the new Senate budget, but it squeaked by. The four Democrats (Hagan of North Carolina, Pryor of Arkansas, Baucus of Montana, and Begich of Alaska) are running for re-election in 2014, and evidently didn't want to be tied to any budget (having also voted against the Republican's Ryan budget).

It wasn't easy though. The Senate had to deal with 101 amendments -- and held roll-call votes on 70 of those amendments. That's a lot of amendments, and as Budget Chair Murray quipped, some of them even concerned the budget. Having watched the entire process for what seemed like hours on end, I have to say that I think the senators of both parties are to be commended -- the Republicans for allowing the measure to come to the floor without a filibuster, and the Democrats for allowing all of the amendments to be heard and voted on. This is the way the Senate should work.

It was probably all just an exercise in futility though. Just like the House budget bill died quickly in the Senate, this Senate bill has no chance of being accepted by the House. In fact, the two bills are so far apart, that it's hard to even view them as a place for compromise to start. The most likely scenario is that no budget at all will be passed by both branches of Congress, and 2014 (like 2013) will be funded by a series of continuing resolutions. That's pathetic, and shows just how broken our Congress is right now -- but that's the way it is until at least the 2014 elections.

NOTE -- Senator Sanders was able to get an amendment passed that said changing the cost of living adjustments to a "chained CPI" method for Social Security and veterans benefits will not happen. It's not really binding, but maybe it is a good sign for the future -- because this will come up again.