The phantom of the Obama budget.

Blaming It All On the Tea Party, an essay by James W. Ceaser and John York [H/T Glenn Reynolds] explores the way the Left mischaracterizes the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party has now become the villain of choice for creating an impasse on negotiating a spending and borrowing settlement.  Toward the end they note the fact that Obama has not proposed a budget since his original proposal was voted down in Congress earlier this year, receiving exactly zero votes from either party.

In my years of watching politics, it has always been the President who has proposed the federal budget. That’s why he has the Office of Management and Budget. In the past, congress has had input and the actual legislation is always introduced in the House, but preparing the budget was always the responsibility of the President.

This has been the case for the lifetime of all the members of the press. The fact that they are allowing Obama to get away with claiming that it’s his job to wait for Congress to present a budget to him, rather than the other way around, is testimony to how far in the tank they are for this man.

Ceaser and York:

“We are witnessing the sorry spectacle of high-minded commentators, who only recently were chanting in unison for greater transparency in our politics, and who now bite like a school of perch at the cheap plastic lures and leaks being tossed out by White House flaks. These are men and women without an ounce of pride in either themselves or their craft.”

If any more proof was needed that there are no honest reporters left it is the total silence about this fact, one that everyone knows and no one acknowledges.

But let’s be realistic about the situation the country finds itself in. I cannot imagine a budget proposal coming out of the Obama White House that would actually address the critical issue of government overspending. If I were one of the high-minded commentators I would maintain that Obama’s OMB simply cannot produce a budget proposal that grapples with the problems of the debt and the deficit. To have them spend time and effort fruitlessly is probably not a good use of their time. OMB Director Jack Lew is probably better off preparing to testify before the House of Representatives.

This leaves Americans with a dilemma. Let’s face it; Congress is very bad at actually writing good legislation. ObamaCare is exhibit A and Frank-Dodd is exhibit B. Monstrosities both and preparing the federal budget is at least as complex. So I’m not sure what can be accomplished about an actual budget before the federal debt ceiling is reached. It is widely reported that the federal government last passed a budget over 800 days ago. That means that the largest government in the world is winging it financially. If that doesn’t worry you, you’re not worried about the right things.