House “Budget Enforcement Resolution” Dodges Accountability

Stephen Keen / July 02, 2010

Last night the House passed a “budget enforcement resolution” setting discretionary spending levels for fiscal year 2011 at $1.12 trillion. This is approximately $7 billion less than President Obama’s budget and $3 billion less than the Senate proposal. However, the resolution isn’t newsworthy so much for what it contains but rather for what it lacks.

Make no mistake: This is not a true budget. All future federal spending and revenue projections, which would normally be included in an actual budget resolution, are conspicuously absent in what was passed last night.

This has never happened. The House of Representatives has passed a budget resolution in every single year since the modern budget process was established in 1974—until now. (more…)