Fiscal Year 2011 Begins Today, Without a Budget
By Randall Holcombe • Friday October 1, 2010 7:15 AM PDT • 5 Comments
October 1 is the beginning of the federal government’s 2011 fiscal year. Congress has not passed a budget, and it appears likely that one won’t be passed until January. The government that wants to take over and run your health care (and other aspects of your life) can’t even pass its own budget.
One remarkable thing about this is, nobody’s remarking on it. I saw nothing in my newspaper about it. When I Googled “fiscal year 2011 budget” Google told me there were more than 19 million results. While I didn’t look through all of them, I didn’t see anything very critical. CNN ran this story which mentioned that a budget hadn’t been passed (well into the article), and also noted that this has been common over the last several decades. Here is a blog post that just says Congress has passed a continuing resolution to fund federal programs until a budget is passed. There probably are some critical comments among those 19 million hits, but for the most part this is something most people haven’t even noticed.
The fact that Congress hasn’t passed a budget for the fiscal year didn’t make the news because, in fact, it’s not news. It happens almost every year.
My thoughts still go back to my initial comment. If they can’t even take care of their own responsibilities, why should Americans think it would be a good idea for the federal government to take over more of what are now their responsibilities. If the government can’t even run their own affairs, I certainly don’t want them meddling in mine.
Tags: Budget and Tax Policy, Economics, The State 
Imagine if we actually receieved all the government we pay for. Scary thought!
Steve Hogan | Oct 1, 2010 | Reply
Two Libertarian candidates for Congress remarked on the absence of a 2011 budget as they published their own balanced budget proposal for 2012. Here‘s the press release and a link to the budget summary.
I’m one of the candidates. Here‘s my commentary today on what the absence of responsible budgeting from our current representatives tells us about them.
Mark Grannis | Oct 4, 2010 | Reply
I read your budget cuts and while some of them sound good, some of them are asking for big trouble such as privatizing the FAA. Big mistake guys...for one thing what you are creating is a monopoly. Imagine if Lockheed Martin who already has taken over many of the privatized functions of the FAA were to have control over the aviation world that the FAA does. They would be able to regulate their competitors out of business. Privatizing the FAA is not the way to go, especially since a lot could be saved by ending their bureaucratic ways. Scaling the FAA back some would be appreciated , and yes I am a pilot.
Joshua | Oct 23, 2010 | Reply