Better Late Than Never

After years of turmoil, the great machine that is the federal government looks as though it is beginning to run relatively smoothly again.  For years, unable to agree on a budget, Congress funded the government largely formulaically, passing a series of Continuing Resolutions to maintain the status quo.  Finally, on the heels of an October shutdown followed closely by flirtation with a debt default, Congress rolled up its collective sleeves and agreed to a bipartisan budget resolution and then fleshed it out earlier this year with a comprehensive Omnibus Appropriations measure including line-by-line funding for all 12 Appropriations Subcommittee titles.

With President Obama's State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of Congress on January 28, the administration has begun to put together its Fiscal Year 2015 Budget.  By law, the President is required to submit a budget to Congress each year on the first Monday in February -- a deadline President Obama successfully met in 2009 but has failed to meet in the years since. Last year, the President delivered his budget on April 8, more than two months late and after the House and Senate had each passed their own respective budget resolutions.  On January 23, OMB spokesman Steve Posner announced that the President's 2015 Budget will be released on March 4.

"Now that Congress has finished its work on this year's appropriations, the administration is able to finalize next year's budget," Posner said.  "We are moving to complete the budget as quickly as possible to help Congress return to regular order in the annual budget process."

Complicating all of the apparent smooth sailing is the impending debt ceiling debate.  As part of the agreement that reopened the government in October, the statutory limit on the public debt and the Treasury Department's authority to borrow in order to finance deficit spending was extended until February 7.  While Treasury has in the past resorted to "extraordinary measures" to keep the lights on past a lapse in the limit, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has urged prompt action in February to avoid another government shutdown or possibly even a default on the government's debts.  Notwithstanding the recent run of bipartisan goodwill that has accompanied the December budget agreement and the recent Omnibus Appropriations measure, it remains to be seen whether raising the debt limit will come with any added demands by congressional Republicans -- or concessions by anyone.

Responses to the Treasury Secretary's warning -- with Democrats calling for an immediate clean increase of the debt ceiling and Republicans warning that increasing the debt ceiling without significant concessions would be a clear sign of fiscal irresponsibility -- show that even with the recent bipartisan efforts, when it comes to the core fiscal debates such as this, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Next up: POTUS and SOTU.