"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Monday, January 23, 2012

File This Under "What If a Republican Senate Did This?"


Tomorrow will be President Obama's third State of the Union address.   It will also, ironically, be the 1000th day since the Democrat Senate led by Harry Reid last passed a budget.  

Will the MSM let the Democrats get away with this?   Have we really gone so far down as a country that our leaders aren't expected to do the bare minimum of their job?  

I know the Constitution doesn't say that the Congress must pass a budget detailing how it will spend the dollars it collects in taxes.   It doesn't say a lot of things that have been interpreted over the years to be powers of the federal government.   But it does say that Congress has the power to tax, to pay debts, to provide for the common defense and the general welfare, to borrow money, to regulate commerce, to coin money and regulate the value thereof, and to make all laws "necessary and proper" to carry out its powers.   Hard to see how you could do those things without having a budget.   I think it's implicit in the document both as a "penumbra" (as they say) and as a matter of longstanding practice.   So not passing a budget means that the Senate is not upholding the Constitution, which is its sworn duty.

So when do the impeachments start?

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