Politics are indeed a big part of the federal budgeting process.
>>Obama enjoyed a super majority his first 2 years in office.
"Supermajority," in this context, typically refers to control of the House and sixty votes in the Senate. Democrats had sixty votes most of the time from Jul 2009 through Jan 2010, six of those seven months.
>>Oct. 2008 … Congress and George W. were at odds so no budget was passed in October 2008. Instead Obama passed a budget shortly after entering office in 2009 for 2009.
Just about all of the 2008 budget was contained in the eventual outlays, all but about $250-450 billion. The deficit that year was more than $1.4 trillion.
The added expenditures were required as a response to the highly destructive GOP SSE Great Recession. The Right, with its massive and unproductive tax cut giveaways to fat cats, its dangerous and irresponsible deregulation of the financial sector, and its reckless and expensive overseas military misadventure, put the economy in the hospital. Obummer was left to pay the bill, and you wanna blame him for it. It's not a coincidence that yer so laughably misinformed about one issue after another.
>>This might have meant Obama ended up having 9 budget years instead of 8.
Yer effectively saying "nine might be eight." Nah, nine is never eight.
>>During his 1st 2 years in office he passed 3 budgets all with record increases in tax rates, spending, and deficits (Obamacare).
Like all presidents, the Negro raised some taxes and cut others. In his first two years, the net effect of his tax policy was a large tax
cut, larger than the cutting 43 did in his first two years. Some was contained in the ARRA — hundreds of billions of dollars in reductions. Then the Dec 2010 tax deal (Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act) contained another $400 billion in tax cuts.
Spending in real dollars fell eight percent 2009-14. Very large deficits continued until 2012. It's now down by about two-thirds.
>>His budgets truly reflected his liberal policies of tax and spend.
He raised taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products to pay for the Children's Health Insurance program (costs about $14B annually) and through the individual mandate for health insurance — the penalty that was originally set to be $700-2000 by this year. In 2013, Medicare taxes went up on households collecting incomes above $250K. Through the ACA, we get additional revenues from health insurance companies and prescription drug manufacturers. The increase associated with so-called "Cadillac" health insurance plans has again been delayed, this time until 2020.
>>The Republicans did not have the numbers to stop him.
They've had the House and plenty of votes in the Senate.
>>Of course this naturally caused a backlash and in 2010 the Democrats lost their super majority in the Senate and ended up losing control the House of Representatives.
The "this" you describe never occurred. We lost the Congress as the result of a fairly widespread epidemic of Teabugger fever brought on by repeated exposure to a lazy, shiftless, lying, America-hating, commie witch doctor, terrorist sympathiser, constitutionally illegitimate POTUS. I'm hoping Ryan's speakership will spread enough disinfectant to adequately suppress the current outbreak of ignorant, know-nothing, RW hysteria. Ya say ya want the country back? We'll here's the thing — ya ain't
gettin' it back. And if ya don't like it, TFB. Progress will crush you like a bug.
>>The Congress can agree on its own to keep the last agreed upon budget in place. … This can be don't without approval of the President as the budget has been legally passed as the agreed upon spending level at some point in the past.
If Congress does not complete action on an appropriations bill before the start of the fiscal year on October 1, it must pass, and the President must sign, a continuing resolution (CR) to provide stopgap funding for affected agencies and discretionary programs. (
source)
>>When two sides can't come to an agreement it is because one side, or the other, or both refuse to compromise.
And a majority of the American electorate recognises that the Republicans have been the ones who didn't/couldn't compromise. RW nuts controlled the caucus.
>>But the average citizen is too stupid to understand who is to blame
Some people are too stupid, I'll agree to that.
>>the impasse was squarely with Obama for the simple reason he had nothing to gain from a budget agreement.
Whining about media bias is a loser's lament.