Congressional Budget Act
OK...I'll admit that saying the agreement will be gone by this Christmas is likely (but not necessarily) an overstatement.
But saying that the "Budget Control Act" -- the debt ceiling increase/deficit reduction deal signed into law on August 2 -- isn't likely to be in place on January 1, 2013, or to have it's projected impact over the full 10 years it supposed to be in effect is anything but an exaggeration.
The reason? Federal budget agreements have seldom, if ever, gone the distance. Instead, they have always been changed, waived, ignored or abandoned long before they were scheduled to expire.
For the record, in 1974 I applied to law school using a picture of me in a brown crushed velvet sports jacket with huge lapels, a wide brown crushed velvet tie, a patterned shirt with a large collar, hair almost to my shoulders, and a mustache attached to my application.
Why is that important? You'll know after you take a look at my weekly "Fiscal Fitness" column from Roll Call.
The Budget Act Was A Lot Hipper in 1974 Than It Is Today
Roll Call
April 1, 2008
What do the following have in common: the already-enacted economic stimulus, a second economic stimulus, a homeowner bailout, the Bear Sterns rescue by the Federal Reserve, and the soon-to-be-considered emergency supplemental appropriation for activities in Iraq and Afghanistan?
