The No-Budget Budget

The gutless wonders in the House leadership won't pass a budget this year because of the problems it will cause them with the voters (though, they certainly will have plenty of trouble either way):

House Democrats passed a budget document Thursday that sets discretionary spending at levels below those proposed by President Barack Obama but doesn’t address how Congress should cut deficits.

The “budget enforcement resolution” Democrats are substituting for a traditional budget resolution sets discretionary spending for 2011 at $1.12 trillion, about $7 billion less than Obama’s proposal and $3 billion less than a Senate Democratic plan. It also sets a goal of cutting deficits to the point where revenues equal all spending except for interest payments on the debt.

But unlike traditional budget resolutions, this year’s version doesn’t detail how Congress should reach that goal, leaving those tough decisions to Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission.

“While this resolution does not project the budget out over five years, it does look to the future by assuring that the House will have an opportunity to vote this year on longer-term budget proposals made by the president’s Fiscal Commission and approved by the Senate,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.).

The budget measure passed on a 215-210 vote as part of a rule setting debate on a supplemental spending bill for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. All Republicans plus 38 Democrats from both ends of their caucus voted against the bill.

That should be corrected to "38 Democrats were allowed to vote against it by Nancy Pelosi in a vain attempt to save their sorry butts in November". The Hill doesn't have the gift for writing this stuff like I do.