2014 budget debate

Some quick budget topics that deserve a mention but not a whole post:

1. About the delayed Obama fiscal 2014 budget

I've already posted once about this. On the one hand, the fact that the president's budget isn't going to be sent to Congress until early April (the current rumored date is April 8) is very distressing. On the other hand, the crocodile tears and phony outrage that will come from GOP members of Congress when the budget finally is released will be laughable.

Think about this: The Obama budget would have been declared dead on arrival by the GOP if it had been submitted by the February 4 statutory deadline and it would immediately have been ignored. Now those same House and Senate Republicans will wail about not having the chance to review what the president proposed before they put together their own budgets.

2. About the fiscal 2014 budget resolution

The day after Election Day is never a good time to do substantive analysis. The win seems bigger to those who won and those who lost usually are more despondent than the situation warrants.

That's the situation this morning: Democrats are crowing about permanent new demographic shifts in the electorate while the GOP is doing the standard soul searching by those who didn't accomplish what they had hoped.

As far as the federal budget is concerned, this will all change tomorrow when the caffeine induced highs and lows of the election are replaced with the realization that some very big fiscal cliff deadlines are now just seven weeks away.

Here's the situation:

1. At some point very soon -- probably around noon today eastern time -- the mood will change as the House GOP realizes that it is the last bastion when it comes to taxes and spending.

There's no doubt in my mind that the election results mean that the budget debate just got much, much more difficult. If you were wondering/hoping/praying that a deal would be more likely after the election than it was before, you will be very disappointed.

As I explain in my column from today's Roll Call, the one thing I know several hours before the polls wil be open in most states on the east coast: Next year's budget debate is going to be as bad as what it was in 2011 when the phrase "train wreck" was an inadequate description of what was happening.

Next Year’s Budget Debate May Be Total Mess

This column was written a few days before the elections and is being published on Election Day. So rather than talking about the election results before they happen (What a concept!), and instead of continuing what is now my weeks-long rant about the fiscal cliff, I thought it best to focus on something that few other federal budget watchers so far have dared talk about: There will be a big budget debate next year and it’s likely to be very ugly.