Roy Blunt: “That is exactly right. That is the way the process is supposed to work. I think the observation the Senator made on the…”

“That is exactly right. That is the way the process is supposed to work. I think the observation the Senator made on the Budget Control Act is that is the maximum amount of money we agree to spend. The majority leader's view is: Well, if the House decides to spend less than that, somehow we cannot move forward. The truth is that is the excuse for this year. In the 6 years that the current majority has controlled the Senate, they have not passed a budget three times and three times have not brought a single appropriations bill to the floor. I do not exactly know what the excuse was the other times, but this year it is: Well, the House has a different number. The House is a different institution. It is the House of Representatives. They get elected every 2 years. They bring bills to the floor. In fact, they have had a budget the last 2 years and we have not. I think the House the last year that the majority controlled, the last year Nancy Pelosi was Speaker, did not have a budget. That may be the only time ever since the budget law in 1974. But the Senate has not had a budget for 3 years. There is that old saying: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Clearly the budget is a plan, and the Parliamentarian says we do not have one. The Parliamentarian says the Senate has failed to obey the law for 3 years now because we do not have a budget. We are not prepared to tell the American people what our budget is.…”