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Congressional Dysfunction and Budget Procedures

A broken Congress, dominated by minority rule enabled by gerrymandering and influenced by oligarchs, fails to pass legislation necessary to operate the country.

Congress has been gridlocked by minority rule for such a long time, that it has created additional parliamentary procedures to bypass the gridlock to fund everyday government functions. Reconciliation for mandatory spending and Continuing Resolutions (CRs) for discretionary spending. These bypass normal legislative processes.

What is a Continuing Resolution (CR)?​

A continuing resolution (CR) is a special funding measure Congress uses to temporarily fund government operations when lawmakers haven't passed the regular annual budget or appropriations bills by their deadline.

Unpopular appropriation bills are difficult to pass because they need 60 votes, Clean CR's are easy to get 60 votes because they do not make unpopular changes.

Normally, Congress is supposed to pass 12 separate appropriations bills before October 1 each fiscal year. These bills set specific spending levels for government agencies. If they fail to pass these bills on time, there's no funding authorized for government operations, leading to a government shutdown.

Instead of allowing a shutdown, Congress generally uses a "Clean CR" to:

  • Maintain funding at the previous fiscal year's level or a slightly adjusted rate.
  • Provide additional time to negotiate and pass regular appropriations bills.
  • Prevent a lapse in essential services, avoiding immediate disruption or shutdown.

Dirty CR​

The majority party can introduce riders in a CR, changing it into a Dirty CR.

A "Dirty CR" is a political tactic where the majority party threaten a government shutdown to sneak unrelated, unpopular policy riders into must-pass funding legislation.

A Dirty CR is functionally equivalent to an unpopular appropriation bill. 

Why Appropriations Bills Rarely Pass on Time?​

Appropriations bills require 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster. When Congress can't secure enough votes, they run out of time.
Appropriations bills handle discretionary spending, funding federal agencies annually.

What is Reconciliation?​

By law, reconciliation bills can only adjust "mandatory" (non-discretionary) spending (ss, medicare, debt service), taxes, or the debt limit and cannot be filibustered, requiring only a simple majority, 51 votes.

So What?​

By voting for the GOP Dirty CR, the Democrats are voting for The GOP's unpopular appropriations bill. As a "controlled opposition" party the democrats capitulate with the GOP by voting for their agenda in exchange for absolutely no concessions whatsoever.