Members of Congress are supposed to be intelligent, mature, reasonable, responsible men and women-although political partisanship often makes us wonder. One example of that partisanship is on display in Congress now.
The federal government spends too much-surprised?-and is expected to run out of authorized money for most federal agencies in the next few weeks.
Republicans have proposed a bill that would keep government running through Sept. 30 while cutting spending by $61 billion. But Democrats oppose the cuts.
Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner said: “Read my lips. We’re going to cut spending.”
But Democrats are threatening to blame Republicans for a government “shutdown” if higher spending is not authorized.