Approving a budget for the US in "normal order" means constructing and approving a budget in each of the House and Senate, then reconciling differences, and presenting that legislation to the the President for signature, if he approves.

The last US budget established in normal order was for the 12 months ending Sep 30, 2009. That is Fiscal Year 2009 (FY 2009) in government speak. Obama became President in January 2009. No usual budget has been passed under his direction for 4 years. See below for why.

The unusual spending event in 2009 was the $1 trillion stimulus proposed by Obama, generally approved by Bush, and signed by Obama in Feb 2009. That spending was added into the spending levels for government departments in FY 2009, and implicitly into the 2009 budget. It was sold as a one-time kick-start to the economy. It increased the FY 2009 debt by $1 trillion and did little except reward Democratic government agencies troughout the land.

Since that time, Obama takes credit for an historically slow increase in spending in the following years, a model of spending restraint. Democrats point to the FY 2009 "Bush's budget" as the spending blowout that is creating all of our debt today. They don't mention the $1 trillion increase to that budget pushed through by Obama.

Sen. Democrat majority leader Harry Reid has refused to even hold budget conferences in the Senate since 2009. Instead, the House and Senate pass "continuing resolutions" which allow the President and executive agencies to spend what they did in the previous year. The $1 trillion "kick-start" has silently become a permanent, yearly increase in government spending. That is why the US is accumulating massive, unprecedented debt.

Why does the majority Republican House agree to these continuing resolutions? They have proposed and passed budgets for each year 2010 - 2012, just as they should. The Senate would not consider them. If the Republicans would not agree to the continuing resolution, pushing the issue, then there would be no spending authorization, and the government would "shut down". They don't want to face a politicized press which would report this action as an irresponsible blocking of government activity. So, the Democrats silently get their way on spending.

President Obama has submitted his own budgets for consideration. The Senate has voted unanimously against the outrageous spending contained in it. No Democrat in the Senate wants a news story reporting that he voted for such outrageous spending.

So, we have a set of headlines which support Obama's measured and responsible administration of our government:
• Bush's outrageous FY 2009 spending is causing our increasing debt (deficits).
• Obama has been stingy in increasing spending since 2009, for every year he has been in office.
• House Republicans approve of US spending every year, so why are they complaining?
• The Senate has passed a budget every year in the form of a continuing resolution. Nothing unusual to see here.
• Everything is running along on auto-pilot, so the press has no story to report.

The press reporting is the real power behind this. Obama learned to be a politician, never say anything close to specific, have underlings say things and if opposition says something, make sure cameras are rolling.
If Republican House shut things down by not passing the continuing resolutions, they would be roasted in the press, and blamed for the economy. They already are, but the press would have a field day. Just look at how the press handled the fiscal cliff talks.
This is why Obama talks generally about cuts but never mentions exactly what he would cut. But when Republicans do, they are murdering big bird.

Approving a budget for the US ... -- Andrew_M_Garland at January 20, 2013 11:53 PM

That is a +1000 post. You are on target.

The other thing to observe is that with the "fiscal cliff" tax bill the taxes on the 1% is now around 40%. So that means that the truly rich and the job creators that live in New York State, California and some other states are facing income taxes of up to 63%. Or in other words, they will be paying 63¢ of every $1 bill will be paid as taxes.

Then as spurious notes:

• California is trying to get porno actors to wear condoms
• New York state passed a law that makes eight+ magazines illegal
• States with no income taxes: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, Wyoming
• Right to Work states are gaining businesses at a steady rate
• Union Required states, such as Michigan have cities (Detroit) razing whole blocks of houses.

On a gossip basis: Rock River Arms, Remington/ Marlin/ Bushmaster, Springfield Arms and even Smith & Wesson (all NY based) are apparently looking to move their headquarters and manufacturing.

Many porno producers are contemplating Nevada.

Even pro-golfer Phil Mickelson is seriously thinking of leaving California over taxes.

So what would you do if you had that much confiscated from you at the point of the IRS gun?

Andrew:

Thank you for that summation. It's a better explanation that I've managed to put together, and I'm going to be cutting and pasting it a lot. :)

Thank you, Jim P.
Thank you, Unix-Jedi, paste away.

Andrew,

Just to let you know: Your post is now on my website.