COMMENTARY: WASTEFUL RESOLUTION

Volume XX No.37: September 11, 2015

As the summer temperatures turn to fall (at least in our dreams), Washington doesn’t look for leaves turning color, but for that inevitable – it seems – piece of legislation, the Continuing Resolution. You see, the one Constitutionally mandated – and aggressively protected, or seemingly so – annual Congressional prerogative is the power of the purse. But instead of judiciously exercising this robust power, Congress usually dithers. In recent years it doesn’t matter who’s in power, they just can’t get it done. This year, out of the dozen spending bills that together fund the federal government, the House has finished six and the Senate none. This isn’t because the President rejected bills passed by a House and Senate controlled by the opposing party. Truth be told, he opposed them, but he never even received final versions on his desk to veto.