Continuing Resolution Highlights Congress’s Broken Budget Process, Cato Expert Says

“Following three disruptive government shutdowns this Congress, the House has acted to keep the government funded into December with a continuing resolution to stave off another government shutdown this fall. Government shutdowns are a costly distraction from the bigger fiscal challenges facing the country and are ineffective as political leverage.”

“At the same time, the need for another continuing resolution underscores that Congress has abandoned the budget process. Lawmakers are supposed to debate and pass twelve annual appropriations bills that establish priorities and exercise oversight over discretionary spending. Instead, Congress increasingly governs through temporary funding patches, manufactured deadlines, and recurring shutdown threats.”

“While Congress expends enormous political energy on avoiding self-inflicted funding crises, the largest drivers of federal spending, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the debt, continue growing largely unchecked. Those programs are responsible for the overwhelming majority of projected spending growth, yet they are largely absent from Washington debates.”

“Restoring fiscal sustainability requires far more than keeping the lights on. The greater test of leadership is whether Congress will summon the political courage to confront the structural drivers of America’s debt or continue postponing tough choices until a crisis forces a reckoning.”