How Can We Adhere to a Budget if We Never Do One?
One of the most important jobs our lawmakers have is to judiciously spend the precious tax dollars we send them each year. They need this money for important things – a military to keep us safe in the world and for law enforcement to keep us safe in our neighborhoods, for Social Security and Medicare so we could have some money and healthcare when we retire, for Medicaid and other programs for those that have fallen on hard times. There are many other things that our government spends money on, but I thought I’d list a few that I think are very important and deserve our tax money. The money for all of our federal expenditures is allocated by a yearly budget, which is created by Congress and is a job that many think is the most important task they perform, yet they just can’t seem to get it done.
I continually heard adults tell me in my youth that I should “live within my means” about the evils of credit cards; they gave me sage advice like, “Just because you have checks left doesn’t mean you have money.” The irony is that today a twenty-something (labeled Gen Zs) may not even know what a check is or may have never written one. No wonder they’re confused when the bank asks them if they want to open a checking account. They rightly wonder why we use this archaic way of transferring money when we can instantly accomplish the task with a few touches on our smartphones. No matter what the process we used to spend money, what they were telling me was . . . don’t go into debt. I was counseled on how compound interest could be your friend or your enemy. I can safely say that our lawmakers seem to continue our country’s journey on the bad end of the interest calculations, and it doesn’t seem to bother them. We all have friends who, throughout their lives, were either really good or really bad with their money. There were those who had bad luck or didn’t have as many opportunities as others, but, for the most part, we all reaped what we sowed (there’s another great saying). They suffered the consequences of their choices, which brings me to our country’s budget.
Each year, starting about now, our lawmakers begin working on one of their most important jobs, coming up with a budget for the next fiscal year. That means that a year ago Congress, specifically the House, started, or should have started, drafting a budget for the 2025 fiscal year which started on October 1st of 2024. Again, last year they didn’t accomplish this task and haven’t for 9 years! They have managed to keep the government running with a continuing resolution (CR) that funds programs at their existing levels. Now some would say that this approach is a plus because it keeps the government from going deeper in debt, but what it actually does is keep them from cutting unneeded expenses and funding things that we need. My great idea is, since the lawmakers don’t have to do any work since everything stays the same, then they don’t need to get paid until we have a completed budget. I think that might help them feel the consequences of their inaction.
Unfortunately, the reality is that many pieces of needed legislation, which were slated to be passed with a budget or even on a broader CR were not included. Many of these proposed laws had bi-partisan and bi-cameral support and should have been passed a year ago. This is especially true of some healthcare legislation that I have talked about before. For instance, while I have talked endlessly about the negative parts of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), there is a proposed piece of legislation, the Ensuring Pathways to Innovative Cures (EPIC) Act that would fix an unintended consequence of the IRA that has the support of both sides of the aisle. I talked about this Act a year ago, and it had bi-partisan support with the promise of quick passage. Just a few weeks ago many lawmakers promised it would be included in the upcoming CR, yet it was again pushed to the side. This isn’t the only danger of not passing a detailed budget.
With the government funded at present levels through September, the legislation that should have been done as part of a budget will most likely be done piecemeal, with the threat that some of the funding for this legislation will be garnered from other programs. The President has said that he will not touch Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. He says that he will only work to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and I will take him at his word. I also believe there are wasted resources in most government programs. We can and should eliminate waste, but we shouldn’t cut the required funding in these programs, especially Medicaid. While I think there are changes that can be made that ensure only those who really need the help will receive the services offered by Medicaid, I believe the management of the services by each state is the best way to administer this type of program.
Our government needs to adhere to the advice we received when we were young – to live within our means. We need to tell them that they need to quit shrinking from doing the very important job of budgeting. We need to tell them that, in these times of political polarization, we should at least pass the legislation that has bipartisan support. They need to be reminded that eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse is important, but cutting benefits in important programs to pay for other things is not how we should move forward.
Best, Thair