Amid the current economic turmoil, the House and Senate this week passed separate versions of the fiscal 2009 congressional budget resolution.

On the one hand, this is important. For the second year in a row Congress is actually going to adopt a budget for the coming year, something that it is legally required to do but wasn't always able to do when Republicans were in the majority.

On the other hand, it's not important at all.  The budgets passed by the House and Senate provide no real guidance on what Congress will do the rest of this year or next and certainly don't represent any deal with the White House about what it will accept.

As a result, the fiscal 2009 congressional budget resolution should be taken for what it is: a box in the legislative process that Congress had to check off. 

The fiscal 2009 congressional budget resolution is not the economic policy Congress is recommending and it certainly doesn't represent congressional thinking about what's needed to deal with the economic turmoil.  If and when those decisions are made, the budget numbers simply will be adjusted to take them into account.

In other words, let's all move on.