Comment on [deleted]
Eiri@lemmy.ca 3 days ago
The bad part isn’t the number of votes. That’s barely relevant.
The bad part is what happens when the budget bill doesn’t pass. There are two valid possibilities:
- The previous year’s budget is provisionally renewed as-is until an agreement is reached
- The non-passing of the bill acts as a vote of no confidence against the government and elections are held. In the mean time, the previous year’s budget is provisionally renewed as-is.
Shutting down funding for government services is an incredibly dumb way to handle it.
dhork@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It’s even dumber, because it’s not about the budget, it’s about the allocation of funds to certain departments and the authorization to spend that money, which comes after the budget. Some other countries separate budgets and appropriations like this, but those other countries put in those safeguards you mention, because they want government agencies to function even if the politicians are having a snit.
In the US, thanks to “small-government” Republicans, we make it extremely difficult to spend any money without explicit authorization. And since we also have no concept of a no-confidence vote, politicians ca basically hold government funding hostage if they want. The politicians that are doing this right now know they won’t have to face another election until next November at the earliest. (Senators serve six year terms, and it’s telling that all of the Democrats who cotes for cloture on this bill are either retiring or not up for election next year…)
HubertManne@piefed.social 3 days ago
its even dumber because their is a third thing the debt ceiling.