Just Who's Fault Is It, Anyway?

Ya know, there's been an awful lot of talk about who's budget is best or who's got a budget and who doesn't or who passed a budget and who hasn't or who's budget is a fantasy and, well actually both parties think the other party's budget is a fantasy. And they're both pretty much right on. Now, to be honest, the Republicans in the House of Representatives did pass a budget and the Democrats in the Senate haven't passed a budget in three years. There is a difference though. See, in the House, all you need is a simple majority to pass a bill or budget. Just a majority of one is enough. So if you're in the majority, you get to pass your budget. It's that simple. But in the Senate, because of the way they have this filibusters rule set up, you have to have a super majority of 60. The Democrats have a majority of less than 60, about 52 or so. It's enough to be called a majority, but not enough to pass a bill or budget unless some Republicans agree to vote for your budget. That's the rub for the Democrats, for the Senate, and unfortunately, for the whole country. The Senate can't pass a budget, there's no use even trying, unless they decide to try to make a big political issue out of it. Which I'm surprised they haven't. So the only thing left is to keep passing stop-gap, short-term permits to spend, bills. Now you can blame the Republicans, or the Democrats, but the thing is, it really doesn't matter who you blame, not even the president. The only thing that matters is that nothing can get done as long as the Senate is screwed up with this filibuster thing. Of course, I'm not convinced that even without the filibuster, Congress could get things done. The big problem is with the fringes of both parties. See the Tea party wing of the Republican party won't allow even moderate Republicans to work with Democrats to find a middle ground, with threat of a primary defeat. For the Democrats part, they've never been able to get their party to agree on much of anything. And with such a slender majority in the Senate, they have trouble getting a majority vote with the help of the far left, even when they have the chance. So I guess if you want to know who to blame for this mess in Washington, blame yourself. You sent them there.