And You Can't Make Me!

My column on nationaljournal.com this week deals with the continuing refusal of the Bush administration to work with Congress on appropriations, or much of anything else. The reason: "winning" rather than "governing' is what's important to this White House.

That may not be much of a surprise to anyone, but this might be (and remember you heard it here first): never mind the fiscal 2008 appropriations, it now must be considered unlikely that many (or perhaps any) of the fiscal 2009 spending bills will be enacted. This means that the federal government may run on a continuing resolution for four consecutive years and that many federal departments and agencies will be operating in 2009 at 2006 spending levels. The impact on the federal government's aility to do much of anything, especially when a crisis arises, will be severely compromised.

The White House will blame Congress for this.  But it will be as much a failure of the Bush administration as the House and Senate.

The White House will claim that this proves the president is a real fiscal conservative. As the New York Times pointed out in an editorial yesterday, that should be dismissed out of hand as fast as the administration last week rejected a cut-the-baby-in-half deal on appropriations with Congress.