Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Buteye Help Me or Martini Help Me Date:   2/13/2018 11:46:08 AM

I deleted my original response because I thought the post was about the two-year budget deal.  While I wanted to fill the obvious gap in your education as it relates to the budget deal, I will instead focus on the Trump budget.  First reminder, Congress holds the purse strings when it comes to the federal budget.  So all the POTUS budget proposal means is to communicate to Congress their priority.  The vast majority of the time it is almost totally ignored as they work out their own deal and ask him to sign it.  He can sign, not sign or veto.  That's pretty much it.

The reality is that in the Senate they need 60 votes to get to cloture so they need at least 9 Democrats voting in favor of any budget deal.  Sadly, as we saw with the two-year deal the only way to get those votes is to bribe the Democrats.   Unless and until we can tackle entitlements we are going to see deficits as far as the eye can see.  Apparently far too many Republicans and every single Democrat have the Keynsian view of deficit spending......we'll all be dead before the bill has to be paid so le bon ton roulet!   [Note:  I added the last part in honor of Fat Tuesday].   

So like Obama before him it appears that Trump will have to pile on the debt because there is no alternative given the situation in the Senate.  Deficit spending is an equal opportunity issue for both parties.  The main difference is that there are a good number of Republicans that want to reduce deficits....on the Democrat side there is not one.  So until Democrats start to elect deficit hawks they have no moral authority to criticize Republicans because they have to bribe Democrats to get a budget passed.