Let's see. How can I make a discussion of budgets interesting. Or, at least, not deadly dull?
Answer: I can't. No one can.
Nevertheless the House passed the Ryan budget this week and sent it off the Senate where it has the same chance of success as Liberty University had in the NCAA Tournament.
All that to tell you that I Tweeted "I had Liberty going all the way [on my NCAA bracket], so I'm out" to the guffaws of my dozens of followers.
The vote in the House on the Ryan budget was 221-207 which USA Today decided was a "narrow" victory. The budget now goes over to the Senate which hasn't passed a budget since Harold Stassen was a heavy hitter in U.S. politics.
The Senate, according to the same paper will vote on its own version of a budget "then adjourn for a two-week spring recess."
Just thinking about their having worked for nearly three weeks in a row without a single week off makes me need a nap.
The good news is both Chambers essentially did what I had predicted a couple of weeks ago. The House and Senate agreed on what is known as a "Continuing Resolution" funding the government from now until the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
They had to do that a whole week in advance of the March 27 deadline. Why? In order to play the "Here Comes the End of the World" game again, they would have had to stay in session next week and, well, it's time for a vacation, so …
Note that the House Democrats presented no alternative to the Ryan budget; they just all voted against it. Nor has the president presented his annual budget which is now nearly two months overdue.
As someone pointed out, President Obama had time to fill out his NCAA bracket, but not enough time to send a budget up to the Hill.
I know the president is in the Middle East, but it is too fluid to figure out what he's trying to do there - other than, quite literally, show the flag, so I'll let it marinate for a couple of days and then I'll declare his trip an abject failure. #satire
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