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With much of the media attention on the Republican primaries and essentially legislation that looks good in an election year, there is a major piece of legislation that has been quite overlooked. What is so important about this legislation? Well, it represents one of the fundamental jobs assigned to Congress by the U.S. Constitution. Often used as a political power play, the lack of passage is probably the number one reason why spending has gotten so out of control. This piece of legislation is the Federal Budget.

The last Federal Budget was passed by President George W. Bush. Yes, you read that right. President Obama has not had a Federal Budget passed since he took the office. If that shocks you, you should consider that for the first two years of his Presidency, President Obama had both a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate. Of course, he is only responsible for signing it into law because the real responsibility is on Congress to get one passed.

In the last four years, that responsibility sits squarely on Senator Harry Reid’s shoulders.

The typical passage of a Budget works like most pieces of legislation. It is created in the House of Representatives through a committee. The committee votes on it and passes it on. It goes through a few changes and the entire House votes on it. Once it passes through there, it goes to the Senate.

From there, a committee in the Senate looks at it and crafts their own version. After the committee vote, it goes up for a vote to the full Senate. Once the Senate passes their version, representatives from both the House and Senate get together and compromise on the final version. Then it goes before both to get a final vote. Finally, the President signs it into law.

What has happened with the Budget is that is has essentially stalled in the Senate. This is because Senator Harry Reid won’t bring up the Budget to the full Senate to get a vote on it. Nor has President Obama put any type of pressure on Senator Harry Reid to get it passed.

If you are wondering why a Federal Budget is such a big deal, think about your household income and expenses. A budget essentially tracks all of your money and what you are spending it on. Without a working budget, your household can easily get into financial trouble because you don’t know where your money is going. The first piece of advice anyone is going to give you to dig yourself out is to make a budget.

The Government is making the exact same mistake. Without the Federal Budget, they don’t know where the money is going. As a result, the deficit keeps growing and growing. It won’t stop growing until Congress grabs back control of their finances with a Budget. At over $15 trillion dollars and counting, there is no country on Earth that can provide that type of money for a bailout. It just isn’t going to happen. Unfortunately, that’s reality and not a political viewpoint.

But more importantly, a Budget leads to accountability. A Federal Budget means governmental accountability. Accountability is the one thing that has been totally lost this administration. If you don’t have a Government that is accountable to the people, then all the “feel good political legislation” that gets passed before election day doesn’t mean a thing.

It is time that the American people stood up and held the Congress and the President accountable for the money that they are spending. It is time to demand that a Federal Budget gets passed. Otherwise, all of the promises spewed out by the President and Congress are just empty words. So, President Obama, let me ask you this. Where’s the Federal Budget?