Congress and the Budget

Washington Watch has a post on Congress, as in: the failure of.

Once upon a time, the fiscal year for the government ran from July 1 to June 30. Over the years (late 60's or so), Congress began to have problems passing appropriations bills by July 1. So some bright sprig came up with a solution: we'll give ourselves 3 more months. We'll change the fiscal year to Oct 1 to Sept 30 and that surely will be enough time. Alas and alack, Congress proved once again that politicians are only too human. For the last many years they've been incapable of passing most appropriations bills timely. Eventually they toss up their hands and stuff everything that's unresolved in a big omnibus bill and push it through.

It's no way to manage the government. Unfortunately, there's no constituency for good governmental management, so we get what we deserve.