Reading comprehension difficulties with 'nearly four years?'
Since 2009 ... No budget approved by both chambers.
Thanks for playing.
Wow....Again you don't know what you're talking about.House, Senate overwhelmingly pass 2011 budgetThe House and Senate on Thursday passed frameworks for the fiscal 2011 budget, six days after a showdown over federal spending threatened to shut down the federal government.
The bill, which calls for axing federal spending by $38 billion through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, passed overwhelmingly in both chambers: 260-167 in the House and 81-19 in the Senate.
Congress' action clears the measure for President Obama's signature and ends the first major battle this year over spending by Republicans who rule the U.S. House and the Democrats who control the U.S. Senate and the White House.
The bill pays for government operations through Sept. 30 and makes reductions in a host of areas.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, made his case Thursday for approving the long-sought budget deal and defended the spending cuts as real and tangible.
"This stops the bleeding" of government red ink, he said on the House floor. "It starts us moving in the right direction.
"Does it cut enough? No. Do I wish it cut more? Absolutely. Do we need to cut more? Absolutely."
Boehner predicted before debate began that the bill would pass with a "bipartisan majority."
In the end, 179 Republicans and 81 Democrats backed the measure, which was agreed to late April 8, one hour before the government was slated to shut down.
In the end, 27 of 87 freshmen Republicans who brought the party into the majority did not vote for the compromise.
News reports in recent days make clear that conservative opposition to the plan has grown as details have emerged about what gets funded and what gets cut.
Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., is emblematic of the freshmen dissenters, who promised voters they would settle for nothing less than $100 billion in cuts in their first year in power.
"We're making no progress in getting out of the red," he said in a statement. "The American people are looking for meaningful reductions that will actually make a difference to our $1.6 trillion deficit and our $14.3 trillion of debt."
Huelskamp and his colleagues are seizing on a report by the Congressional Budget Office that says the budget deal will save only $352 million, in part because there will be a $5 billion increase in Pentagon spending.
Many liberal Democrats weren't too pleased with the compromise, either. Though the agreement does not include some policy provisions Democrats opposed — such as deep cuts to women's health initiatives and Head Start — the impact will be felt in many federal agencies.
"This bill cuts the wrong things too deeply," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told NPR.
http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20110414/AGENCY01/104140303/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budgetPolicy Basics: Introduction to the Federal Budget Process http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=155http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicalshttp://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30297.pdf