Congressional negotiators have indicated they are making substantial progress on deals that would cover spending plans for the rest of Fiscal 2016 and the extension of a number of tax breaks for businesses and individuals.
With the fiscal year already two and a half months old, the $1.1 trillion spending plan is long overdue. To avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers last week moved their self-imposed deadline for a deal to this Wednesday, and another delay is likely this week as lawmakers consider whatever legislative proposals emerge from the negotiations.
Congressional negotiators have indicated they are making substantial progress on deals that would cover spending plans for the rest of Fiscal 2016 and the extension of a number of tax breaks for businesses and individuals.
With the fiscal year already two and a half months old, the $1.1 trillion spending plan is long overdue. To avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers last week moved their self-imposed deadline for a deal to this Wednesday, and another delay is likely this week as lawmakers consider whatever legislative proposals emerge from the negotiations.
Under the regular budget process, Congress should have approved a dozen spending bills months ago. Because lawmakers are again rushing at year’s end to approve such a massive amount of legislation all at once, the proposals will obviously not receive as much careful public and legislative scrutiny they deserve.
In the meantime, federal agencies have not been able to carefully plan for the fiscal year now underway because they don’t yet know what their budgets are.
It is also unfortunate that lawmakers who have pushed to renew the tax breaks did not feel the need to suggest ways to offset the many billions of dollars in lost revenue.
The federal tax system badly needs a complete overhaul to make it simpler, more efficient and more supportive of economic growth and deficit reduction. Patchwork tax legislation is a poor substitute.
