The Senate Budget and Separation of Powers

Good news! The Senate passed a budget this weekend for the first time in four years. The chamber, controlled by the Democratic Party, has received flak from the media and the Senate minority for refusing to propose positive options in the excruciating budget debates over the last few years. There are reasons to be hopeful that this signals a possibility of real budget reform in the upcoming year after standoffs, stalling, and temporary debt ceiling increases (on which we can blame the current sequestration cuts). Most importantly, the cards are now on the table for the three major players in these negotiations: the House, the Senate, and the White House.

Harry Reid (D-NV), Senate Majority Leader

Typically, when passing legislation, the most workable deals are struck by those who will actually vote on a bill. But that has not been the modus operandi of budget negotiations we’ve seen over the past few years. A large part of the bargaining has taken place between the House Republicans and the White House. This ineffective pairing suffers from a lack of force cohesion behind the White House. The administration cannot claim to speak for the Democratic Senate majority the way that their chosen leader, Harry Reid, can. The President can use the bully pulpit to gain popular support for his bargaining positions, and has done so successfully, but he cannot assure the House Republicans he is dealing with that his colleagues in the Senate will pass a bill he suggests. Senators are historically difficult for a President to control (a very good thing, in my opinion). In short, the White House was attempting to do what only Harry Reid and his caucus can effectively do. Now that they’ve openly entered into the fray, real compromises become possible.

What’s more, an actively involved Senate means that our legislation is being designed by, well, legislators. The whole “separation of powers” idea that the Founders write so much about suggests that perhaps having the head of the executive branch lead the country through a difficult legislative battle may not be the best plan. There is certainly enough intellectual ability in the two chambers of the legislature to put together the necessary cuts and compromises to get our financial house in order.The results will be more credible and robust if tied to our legislative body, not a single individual who will exit our government in three years.

Some conservatives are appalled at the content of the budget. It’s being billed as “to the left of the what the White House proposed!” Be that as it may, any proposal by the White House that does not represent the beliefs of the Democrats in the Senate is a red herring. The only legitimate way to make law on this, or any other issue, is to pass a bill by both houses of Congress. The sooner everyone involved in settling this issue remembers that, the better.