Sessions to Dems: Obey the Law!

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Power Line:

John Hinderaker
7/13/11

Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, announced today that he will object to any appropriations bills proceeding to a vote until the Democrats produce a budget. Sessions has been one of the heroes of the battle over the federal budget. Day after day, he has pointed out that the federal government has been operating without a budget for more than two years, because the Democrats refuse to propose one. It has taken a while, but voters are beginning to notice.

Adopting a federal budget is not optional. The Congressional Budget Act requires the federal government to operate under a duly enacted budget, and sets out an annual timetable for the Congressional budget process. The Democrats have simply been ignoring the law because they think it is in their political interest to do so. They don’t want voters to see, in black and white, their plan to raise taxes while simultaneously expanding the national debt, with no end in sight.

Currently, the Democrats are bringing to the Senate floor a series of appropriations bills for FY 2012, which begins in October. This is plainly illegal under the Congressional Budget Act, Section 303©(1) of which provides:

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[Valin]

Power Line: Update from the Senate Floor

John Hinderaker

7/14/11

 

We wrote yesterday about Senator Jeff Sessions’ pledge to oppose the Democrats’ efforts to circumvent the Congressional Budget Act by getting unanimous consent of the Senate to pass appropriations bills even though that practice, in the absence of a budget, is forbidden by the Act. This is an important front in the battle to bring fiscal responsibility to Washington.

 

This morning, the Senate has been debating this issue. We understand that John Thune, Marco Rubio and Bob Corker have all given excellent speeches on the Democrats’ fecklessness in refusing to propose and adopt a budget, as required by law. In a few minutes (if it has not already happened), Senator Sessions will rise to assert his point of order against consideration the Military Construction Appropriations bill, based on the prohibition in the CBA.

 

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, Judge Michael McConnell, now a law professor at Stanford, addressed the Democrats’ defiance of the Congressional Budget Act:

 

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