“The Congressional Budget Act”
“And Now the Real Story”
As the late great Paul Harvey once said.
A story written by Michael W. McConnell who was the Assistant General Counsel of the Office of Budget Management and is now a Professor of Constitutional Law at Stanford University touched upon a topic most have evaded. He said this, “This game of budgetary chicken is against the law for several reasons.” The least of which is honesty. Mr. McConnell goes on to say, and rightly so about Obama’s sudden desire to appear cooperative but, at the same time being serious by jettisoning his contrite clichés about Band-Aids and the like. “The President’s evident purpose is to put the blame on Republicans for failing to come to an agreement. But the absence of any written budgetary documents and the closed-door nature of the negotiation sessions make it impossible to tell which side is being serious and which side is being intransigent.”
He continues, “In 1974, Congress enacted the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which sets specific deadlines and procedures for raising revenue, setting spending priorities, and adjusting the debt limits-all in the sunshine of the public scrutiny, with objective evaluation of all plans by the CBO.”
That said however, let’s face the cold hard facts of this administration, it has, and will, continue to operate as if it were above the law, while thumbing its nose at the “general public,” which, judging by their actions, they loathe. This is a Chief Executive of whom, was indoctrinated in the Alinsky School Community Organization. Trained as a dissident too circumvent the constitutional laws as if no one will notice, or worse yet, no one will dare to challenge. And to date few have tried for fear of racial reprisals. What’s more, for no other reason.
But, rather than belaboring the hideous jargon contained in the bolts of literature on the subject of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, and running the gauntlet of having one’s eyes glaze over in shear boredom, instead, I will cut this subject to the quick. Prudence here is pertinence. Take for example the term “Byrd Droppings” into consideration while trying not to snicker, and reframing from the allure towards crass euphemisms. The term is an actual Congressional Act, not to be confused with Senator ( KKK) Robert Byrd, sorry I couldn’t resist. Seriously though, known as the Byrd Rule (section 313 of the Budget Act) this rule allows Senators to raise what is referred to as “Points of Order” against provisions in the reconciliation bill that are considered extraneous, or, in other word irrelevant, or, unrelated to the subject. Now get this.
As the professor stated in the article, President Obama proposed budget was so out of touch, (or, extraneous) with economic and political realities that the Senate rejected it by a vote of 97 to 0. And may I add, this is a united 100 percent majority decision from a democrat dominated Senate. And, this is same Senate that could not get together to pass a budget since 2009, yet in the same breath voted unanimously against a Presidential budget proposal. So then, need one question just how out of touch with reality this President really is? I think not.
Still, the real store here is a simple one, it can be summed up in one straight foreword word, and, that word is transparency. As McConnell put it, “The Budget Act was designed to force all competing plans to be disclosed publicly and evaluated according to the baseline and criteria.” Here is the heart of the matter, “A real budget would specify the changes so that the public could compare the two alternatives, thus forcing accountability on politicians in lieu of the typical Washington blame shifting. Let the people decide whom, is full of what.
Transparency, from this President? I think not. Now hear this, as we said in the Navy. From Alinsky book Rules for Radicals, prologue xxiii I quote.
“In the midst of the gassing and violence by the Chicago police and National Guard during the 1968 Democratic Convention many students asked me, do you still believe we should try to work inside the system?”
Alinsky was no fool as a teacher he new subversion was the key to Americas demise. Pay close attention to his intention as he advised his radical students he advised this.
“The answer I gave the young radicals seemed to me the only realistic one: do one thing. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing – but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates. ”
Obama listened, Obama learned, and he Obama, dutifully obeyed, and Obama is now the number one most powerful person in the world. Sorry to say folks, short of a civil war, the worshipers of the state have won, we are doing too little, too late. And so, I give you – The Office of The President of the United States of America.
As the Oath mandates – “So help us God.”
