Federal Inability To Come Up With a Budget Costs a Mint
D.C. has a long history of financial irresponsibility
The U.S. will stop short of the fiscal cliff. Most likely, however, the solution won't come as a budget deal, but as a promise to work out a budget in the near future. Crisis averted. But repeatedly driving up to the cliff and slamming on the brakes exacts a cost, too. Whatever happens in the next two months will not fix a much longer-term problem—one that costs the federal government money, even when there's no catastrophe.
That's because Congress rarely submits its work on time.
According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress since 1952 has completed all its appropriations acts by its own statutory deadlines in only four years (PDF)—1977, 1989, 1995, and 1997. In 1974, Congress decided to give itself an additional four months every year to come up with a budget. This is why the federal fiscal year now begins on Oct. 1. The move merely postponed the predictable: America is run on continuing resolutions.
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post comments
If only there was a mechanism in place to remove legislators who didn’t do their jobs.