President Obama's DOA budget faces an AWOL Senate

President Barack Obama submitted his budget today, but it was pronounced Dead on Arrival. By long tradition, presidential budgets are often DOA, usually because one branch of Congress is controlled by the other party.

But in a new twist to the old game, Senate Democrats have discovered that budgets are entirely optional — even with their own guy in the White House. Last month, the Senate marked 1,000 days since they passed a budget, and Majority Leader Harry Reid promptly declared he did not plan one this year again.

Senate Democrats insist they effectively passed a budget, a last minute debt ceiling deal passed last August. “Republican rhetoric aside, Congress did pass a budget. The Republican-controlled House passed it; the Democratic Senate passed it; and the President signed it,” read a statement from the Senate Democrats.

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions fired back, arguing that the August deal lacked the public deliberation necessary to offer certainty and give the voters a chance to weigh competing visions for dealing with a fiscal crisis. “But by refusing to lay out a budget plan for public examination — a fact no one can deny — the Democrat Senate has forfeited the high privilege to lead this chamber,” Sessions wrote. “If Sen. Reid and his members stand by this announcement, it means that the American people will go through yet another year of crisis without Senate Democrats unveiling and standing behind a financial plan for our future.”

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke seems to agree with Sessions. Testifying before the Senate last week, Bernanke was pointedly questioned by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., about the impact of uncertainty caused by the Senate’s failure to budget. Bernanke declined to get into “parliamentary maneuverings,” but he did assert that “uncertainty about the future of the tax code, government programs” has a negative effect on growth, “because firms like to have certainty [and] like to be able to plan."

In defending Reed Sunday on CNN, White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew appeared unaware that filibusters cannot be used to block a budget vote. “But we also need to be honest,” Lew said. “You can't pass a budget in the Senate of the United States without 60 votes, and you can't get 60 votes without bipartisan support. So unless Republicans are willing to work with Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid is not going to be able to get a budget passed.”