Despite Ryan’s insistence, budget won’t be passed

Without repercussions, representatives see no reason to compromise

by Aaron Reilly

April 13, 2016

Courtesy of flickr user David Valdez

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, recently declared that his goal was to pass a budget.

But I’m here to tell him it isn’t going to happen.

Coming off a two week vacation, members of the House have until Friday to craft the nation’s budget.

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I know I’ve written several papers the night before they’re due, but this document is probably going to end up around 170 pages, based off President Barack Obama’s proposed budget. I don’t think there’s enough Red Bull in the world to write 170 pages in one night.

Not only is the budget long, it’s a partner project in which everyone actively wants to contribute. These are the same Tea Party members who lambasted former Speaker of the House John Boehner’s bipartisan spending deal he cut with the Obama administration.

“It’s better to do no budget this year than a bad budget,” Jim DeMint, president of Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said.

I would say this puts the odds at passing a budget to zero.

It turns out there aren’t too many repercussions, if any, for house members if they fail to pass a budget. Embarrassment and surprise are the only palpable consequences —embarrassment that Republicans cannot pass a budget even though they control the House and surprise because under Boehner a budget got passed, before the deadline, every year.

But the truly surprising part is while Boehner was speaker, Ryan chaired the House Budget Committee, which is charged with crafting a budget. Shouldn’t Ryan understand how to craft a budget and appease the Tea Party?

Ultimately, there isn’t motivation to pass a budget with almost no negative consequences. Steps should be implemented to change this; steps that Ryan already supports.

While the Democrats were running the House and also struggling to pass budgets, Ryan suggested a law that would cut off lawmakers’ paychecks if they failed to pass a budget. This law has the same chance of passing as the House passing a budget by Friday — none.

Aaron Reilly ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in comparative literature and Russian.