Congress and the president have proved once again that they are not responsible in managing the fiscal health of the United States.
The House of Representatives and Senate this week passed and sent to President Barack Obama a budget for $1.049 trillion to cover spending for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in September.
To arrive at that still huge figure, Congress cut $38.5 billion from current federal spending, which in sum is $78 billion less than Obama had originally requested to spend this fiscal year. But even the limited cuts are based on shaky accounting and budget tricks, and are not a sufficiently serious approach to the austerity that our country desperately needs.
Who in Washington really wants to follow the responsible course of reducing spending, the national debt, annual deficits and taxes?
Republicans say they want to cut $5.8 trillion in spending over the next decade, though many of them will no longer be in Congress by the end of that time.
Obama says he wants to cut only $2 trillion over 12 years, long after he will be gone from office.
Clearly the larger cuts are vitally necessary. But our nation's finances are being handled in too many cases by perfectly intelligent yet irresponsible lawmakers, so it is an open question whether the real spending reductions we need will materialize in time to head off economic calamity.