[ Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal . ]
By Thomas Spoehr
The Daily Signal
Today is the first Monday in February, …
[ Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.] By Thomas Spoehr The Daily Signal Today is the first Monday in February, and by law, the day the president must deliver his proposed federal budget to Congress. It’s normally a busy day in Washington, D.C., as the pundits and analysts dissect and comment on every aspect of the proposed federal spending package. As a sidenote, the day is never complete for me until one of the leaders of the political parties declares “ this budget is dead on arrival.” It’s one of the annual rituals of Washington, like the predictions of when the cherry blossoms will open. Except President Joe Biden has already signaled he doesn’t intend to comply with the law. Instead, the administration is indicating it might submit its budget in March, or then again, maybe even later. It’s a choice accompanied by consequences for America—a late federal budget submission causes backups in an already dysfunctional congressional budget process, which, in turn, causes cascading delays. It also delays critically needed defense spending, putting our national security at risk at a time when our adversaries seem to be regularly testing our limits. So, given the Biden administration has had over a year in office to produce this budget, why is it AWOL? One reason offered is that the president wants to submit his budget after he has presented his State of the Union speech, currently scheduled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for March 1. These speeches are traditionally given in January or February, so what gives with the March 1 date? No one knows for certain, but CNN speculated that waiting until March 1 might give Biden “more time to try to accomplish some of his legislative goals” before addressing Congress.
