Congress in fantasyland

Don’t know why that scene from the  Wizard of Oz comes to mind here, but telling Dorothy to click her heels three times and repeat her desire to make it happen isn’t too far-fetched an analogy to what the House did as it went into holiday recess…

They couldn’t pass a budget bill, so they just ‘deemed it as passed’ and, voila, they created themselves a new budget. A non-existent $1.12 trillion budget.

The execution of the “deeming” document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget.

The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.

Never before — since the creation of the Congressional budget process — has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) warned this was the green light for Democrats to continue their out-of-control spending virtually unchecked.

“Facing a record deficit and a tidal wave of debt, House Democrats decided it was politically inconvenient to put forward a budget and account for their fiscal recklessness.  With no priorities and no restraints, the spending, taxing, and borrowing will continue unchecked for the coming fiscal year,” Ryan said.  “The so-called ‘budget enforcement resolution’ enforces no budget, but instead provides a green light for the Appropriators to continue spending, exacerbating our looming fiscal crisis.”

And punting it down the yellow-brick road past the mid-term elections. The White House budget director is getting out of Oz, and the munchkins are left with the bill.