1000 days 

What am I’m referring to?  It has officially been 1000 days since the Senate has passed a budget.  Arguably one of the most important functions the Senate has to perform every year .. and they have failed to do this for 1000 days.  And not coincidentally, the Senate has been controlled by Democrats for 1000 out of those 1000 days.  At one point early last year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that it would be “foolish” for the Senate to consider a budget.  They didn’t pass one through committee let alone put one on the floor.

Do the following facts from the Heritage Foundation seem “foolish” to you?

• The last time the Senate passed a budget was on April 29, 2009.
• Since that date, the federal government has spent $9.4 trillion, adding $4.1 trillion in debt.
• As of January 20, the outstanding public debt stands at $15,240,174,635,409.
• Interest payments on the debt are now more than $200 billion per year.
• President Obama proposed a FY2012 budget last year, and the Senate voted it down 97–0. (And that budget was no prize—according to the Congressional Budget Office, that proposal never had an annual deficit of less than $748 billion, would double the national debt in 10 years and would see annual interest payments approach $1 trillion per year.)
• The Senate rejected House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R–WI) budget by 57–40 in May 2011, with no Democrats voting for it.
• In FY2011, Washington spent $3.6 trillion. Compare that to the last time the budget was balanced in 2001, when Washington spent $1.8 trillion ($2.1 trillion when you adjust for inflation).
• Entitlement spending will more than double by 2050. That includes spending on Medicare, Medicaid and the Obamacare subsidy program, and Social Security. Total spending on federal health care programs will triple.
• By 2050, the national debt is set to hit 344 percent of Gross Domestic Product.
• Taxes paid per household have risen dramatically, hitting $18,400 in 2010 (compared with $11,295 in 1965). If the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire and more middle-class Americans are required to pay the alternative minimum tax (AMT), taxes will reach unprecedented levels.
• Federal spending per household is skyrocketing. Since 1965, spending per household has grown by nearly 162 percent, from $11,431 in 1965 to $29,401 in 2010. From 2010 to 2021, it is projected to rise to $35,773, a 22 percent increase.

Adding insult to injury, Obama told us yesterday that he isn’t even going to bother submitting his budget on time.  The law requires him to submit his budget by the first Monday in February.  Instead he just decided that he would do it on his own timetable … as he did in 2009 and 2011 … and submit it later.  Remember … the only use he could really have for the Constitution would be facilitated if they just printed it on softer paper on six-inch rolls. 

Republican Rep. Paul Ryan is clearly disappointed in Obama’s failure to lead: “I am deeply disappointed in this President’s abdication of leadership when it comes to prioritizing Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars. The decision to delay the release of his budget again could not come at a more precarious moment for our fiscal and economic future.” 

Here’s a good video showing us just how much has happened in the 1000 days since the Democrats passed a budget.