Democrat-Led Congress: Incompotent & Irresponsible
 

For the first time since modern budgeting was introduced with the Budget Act of 1974, the House failed to even write a budget. This in a year of extraordinary deficits, rising uncertainty and jittery financial markets.
Gold is going through the roof. Confidence in the dollar and the American economy is falling – largely because of massive overhanging debt. Yet no budget emerged from Congress to give guidance, let alone reassurance, about future U.S. revenues and spending.

Also, Congress has not passed a single appropriations bill. To keep the government going, Congress passed a so-called "continuing resolution" before adjourning to campaign. The problem with continuing to spend at the current level is that the last two years have seen a huge 28 percent jump in non-defense discretionary spending. The resolution continues this incompetence, aggravating an already serious debt problem.

As if this was not enough, Congress then adjourned without even a vote on the expiring Bush tax cuts. This is the ultimate in incompetence. After 20 months of control of the White House and Congress, during which they passed an elaborate, 1,000-page micromanagement of every detail of American health care the Democrats adjourned without being able to tell the country what its tax rates will be on Jan. 1.

It's not just income taxes. It's capital gains and dividends too. And the estate tax, which will insanely rise from 0 to 55 percent when the ball drops on Times Square on New Year's Eve.

This isn't harmless incompetence either. To do this at a time when $2 trillion of capital is sitting on the sidelines because of rising uncertainty is completely irresponsible.

As if this lack of leadership, (no budget, no appropriations bill, no tax bill) was not enough, some Einstein on a House Judiciary subcommittee invites Stephen Colbert to testify as an expert witness on immigration. He makes a mockery of the whole proceedings. Did you know he requested to have his colonoscopy inserted into the Congressional Record?

A fitting end for the 111th Congress.

Re: Democrat-Led Congress: Incompotent & Irrespons
 

They are paid to draft a budget.
That is a duty and part of the job description.
Obama blames the budget deficit on Bush but the dems had the majority in the congress for many years now and drafted the budget deficits. Obama voted for the spending binges when he was still a senator.

Re: Democrat-Led Congress: Incompotent & Irrespons
 

The huge deficit is due to unpaid Bush tax cuts and 2 wars in Iraq and afganistan, both started by Bush. When are we going to stop being the world policeman and let the muslims kill eachother?

Re: Democrat-Led Congress: Incompotent & Irrespons
 

Obama said we would bail from the middle east. Was he lying when he said he would stop the wars?

Obama's promise for honest war budgeting not kept
Posted By Josh Rogin Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 8:03 PM Share
President Obama's commitment to "honest budgeting" for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is going to take another hit when the Pentagon asks for over $740 billion in defense funding next month.
The administration came in promising not only to curb the drastic rise in military spending since 2001 but also to account for war spending transparently and on budget. Shortly after taking office, the White House requested $537 billion for the Pentagon as well as $128 billion for the wars in 2010, but stated in its budget documents that war funding is expected to go down to $50 billion for each year afterwards.

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So Obama is still asking for hundreds of billions more. Bush has been gone over a year.

Re: Democrat-Led Congress: Incompotent & Irrespons
 

Thankfully the Dems on on borrowed time now. They're already bracing for monumental defeats. But we'll have to wait to more years for the biggest defeat of them all.

I don't put faith in politics, and I don't particularly expect the republicans to save the country. Its just that it takes the Republicans 10 years to do the damage democrats do in one.

Re: Democrat-Led Congress: Incompotent & Irrespons
 

We have always had business cycles. If the republicans stay out of the way, the recovery will happen. Democrats choke recovery.