John Cornyn: “I would like to mark this 1,413th day that the Senate has not had a budget. We will be talking a lot about the budget…”

“I would like to mark this 1,413th day that the Senate has not had a budget. We will be talking a lot about the budget this week, as we should, in a debate that has been long overdue. Since the Budget and Accounting Act was passed in 1921, no President has missed the legal deadline for submitting a budget to Congress. Unfortunately, for the fourth time in 5 years, President Obama will miss that deadline. Given that our gross national debt is already larger than our entire economy, and given that we are facing more than $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities, one would think the President would make this a priority and he would feel a greater sense of urgency about America's fiscal dilemma. In fact, not only will President Obama be late with his budget this year, he will not even be submitting it to the House and the Senate until after we have released our own budgets. So the President will not have any input whatsoever by submitting his budget--which he should have done on February 4--he will not have any input whatsoever on the deliberations of the House and Senate as we take up our proposed budgets. As I say, since the Budget and Accounting Act was passed in 1921, no U.S. President has ever done that. The White House has always gone first. In fact, the President is the leader of our Nation not only as Commander in Chief but also as the one the Constitution looks to in the law to bear the responsibility to make at least an initial budget proposal.…”