House members say the 'quick fix' budget system in Congress is

House members say the 'quick fix' budget system in Congress is "broken"

Javier Manjarres
Javier Manjarres
|
January 19, 2018

To temporarily keep the lights on in Washington, D.C., the U.S. House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to fund the government by a vote of 230-197 until a long-term agreement could be reached.

This short-term funding of the government did not sit well with many Republican and Democrat members of Congress, as legislators began to rail against the “badly broken” system that continues to promote a “pattern of reckless government overspending.”

Florida freshman Congressman Matt Gaetz (R) pressed the need for leglislators to focus on doing their jobs in a timely fashion and not kicking the spending can down the road.

This practice of passing these short-term funding resolutions tends to be driven by a political agenda. Much like the Republicans shut down the government a couple years back over Obamacare, Democrats are threatening to shut it all down over DACA.

Here is what some of Florida’s congressional delegation had to say about the vote:

“The Congressional budget and appropriations process is badly broken, and in need of large-scale reform. We must pass spending bills in a timely fashion, instead of a succession of short-term stopgap funding measures like today’s CR. I voted against today’s bill because it continues the pattern of reckless government overspending, and because it shows that Congress is not exercising the power of the purse responsibly, which is our Constitutional duty. 

Month-long CRs play politics with our national security. If the Department of Defense cannot ensure its funding will be adequate for the entire year, complex strategic operations are jeopardized, small businesses who contract with the military are harmed, and military families nationwide will be uneasy about their next paycheck. Congress must improve its budget and appropriations processes, stop kicking the can down the road, and make these endless strings of continuing resolutions a thing of the past.”-Rep. Matt Gaetz (Pictured)

Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy echoed much of what Rep. Gaetz stated, expressing deep concern over how much of a detriment  these “stopgap” budgetary fixes are to the military.

“I came to Congress to help change our broken system, not to be complicit in it. We are four months into the fiscal year and still operating without a full-year budget. Since September, I have voted for three short-term CR’s because I was hopeful that Congressional Republicans would be willing to make the tough decisions to govern responsibly, and the last CR was their third strike. I will not vote for a fourth CR in the absence of good-faith bipartisan negotiations to get our nation back on track and back to fiscal sanity.

“Republican leadership seems content to kick the can down the road rather than to work in a bipartisan way to fund our government, provide emergency relief to hurricane-affected areas, pass the DREAM Act, and protect health care for millions of children. This reckless budgeting would be no way to run a business, and is certainly no way to run the government of the greatest nation in the world.

“I am especially outraged that this bill does not contain disaster relief for families in Florida, Puerto Rico, Texas, and other areas—six months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused massive devastation.  A vote for this bill, in my view, would be a vote against Florida.

“Moreover, our military leaders have warned Congress that lurching from CR to CR is detrimental to our troops and dangerous for our national security. Our armed forces depend on predictable budgeting to make reliable investments in technology and training that empower our men and women in uniform to combat growing threats around the globe. In fact, these CR’s cost our military billions; the U.S. Navy alone was forced to waste $4 billion since 2011 because Congress keeps passing short-term CR’s instead of doing its most basic job and passing a budget.”-Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D)

Chief Pentagon Spokeswoman Dana. W. White griped about her dissatisfaction with the continuing resolution process on Twitter. Florida Senator Bill Nelson (D) agreed with her statement and retweeted her.

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Javier Manjarres

Javier Manjarres

Javier Manjarres is a nationally renowned award-winning political journalist and Publisher of Floridianpress.com, Hispolitica.com, shark-tank.com, and Texaspolitics.com He enjoys traveling, playing soccer, mixed martial arts, weight-lifting, swimming, and biking. Javier is also a political consultant and has also authored "BROWN PEOPLE," which is a book about Hispanic Politics. Follow on Twitter: @JavManjarres Email him at Diversenewmedia@gmail.com

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