In one sentence, everything you need to know about federal budgeting

In 1979, Representative Richard Bolling (D-MO) said, in one sentence, everything you need to know to understand the federal budget, the congressional budget process, the yearly deficit, the total federal government debt, and all the confusing, overly complicated budget jargon designed to create the appearance of “fiscal responsibility.”

During House floor debate on a bill to raise the federal debt limit, Bolling said, “Based on my study of the past, I have never seen anybody defeated or elected on a vote on the debt limit, or a dozen votes on the debt limit.”  (Congressional Record, 2/28/79)

This fact, that voters do not care about deficits and debt, explains how Congress gets away with pretending to do something about spending and the national debt; waiting a bit and then undoing what they did earlier; and then, starting the cycle all over again years later.

Once you understand that, you can skip the heavy reading, the analysis of budget resolutions; enforceable budget caps; sequesters; statutory paygo; this budget deal; that budget deal; the serious-minded citizen committees holding seminars on federal budget reform and “the unsustainable path.”

Absent an external discipline, coming either from the Constitution or politics, Congress will always find a way to get around self-imposed fiscal discipline.

The latest fantasy budget deal is something called The Fiscal Responsibility Act (HR 3746). 75% of the Representatives and 64% of the Senators voted for the bill, signed into law by the President in June of 2023.

Cheer leaders in Congress advertised this budget deal as “one of the largest deficit reduction bills in American history…setting “spending at 1 percent growth over the next 6 years.” All of this to be accomplished by “caps” on spending and automatic across the board cuts (sequesters) if approved spending levels are breached.

As with every other budget deal or budget process enacted over the last 50 years, Congress will soon wiggle out of this new fiscal girdle by amending it, waiving it, or ignoring it.

One year after passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who voted for it, announced her plan to spend above the 1 percent cap included in the bill. (Congressional Record, 6/18/2024). “We’ve got to provide additional resources beyond the caps to address major shortfalls and new challenges,” Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) told her Senate colleagues.

On the House side, there was an attempt to increase the budget for Congress by 6 percent (HR 8772, 7/11/2024). The bill failed on a vote of 205 to 213, but the failure was due to other policy issues included in the bill, not the dollar amount. During House floor action on the bill, the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the 1 percent cap was not mentioned.

In 1974, at the beginning of the 50 year history of federal budget reform, the national debt was $484 billion and the yearly interest payment was $21.4 billion. The national debt is now $35 trillion and the estimated interest payment for next year will be $1 trillion. Evidence enough that without external discipline in the form of a Constitutional amendment, Congress is not capable of “fiscal responsibility.”