Yuuenchi comments

I think what is being missed in the discussion is that the show-down over the budget shows the truth about the budget being a political document as much if not more so than a financial document, -one properly subject to all the whim, currents and foibles of politics, and how this is actually a good thing, an outgrowth the Founder's intent, to make decisions by the federal national government difficult to make, because, with firsthand knowledge of central government ala Great Britain, they did not trust central governments to have the best interests of the individual at heart. That's why the Founders intentionally set up the Senate to represent the States, since the House of Representatives represented individual citizens (at least until passage of the 14th Amendment)

Republicans are being blamed for lengthening the stalemate, but looking at what exactly was shut down, I think we can see that what was shut down was deliberately done so to enrage the populace,

Now, Liberals want to blame Republicans, and Conservatives want to blame Democrats for the showdown, but the truth is neither side of the Aisle has been faithful to the fiduciary duties required of an elected representative of the republic in regards to federal budgets, and have not been for a long time. Think about this, the last time a federal budget was presented, acted on, and passed by Congress was in 1997, and prior to this year, the last time an actual budget was presented to be acted on was 2009.

In 2010, the Democract-controlled Congress did not even act on the Budget (so you cannot here blame Republicans). Instead what we've had are "continuing budgetary resolutions" to keep the government running, stopgap measures, which goes against the spirit of federal law: The U.S. Constitution (Article I, section 9, clause 7) tells us that "No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time." The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, and current law (31 U.S.C. § 1105) stipulates when the President is required to submit a budget.

Part of the Republican response to passage of the ACA/ObamaCare was a pledge to 'defund' Obamacare, since monies must be appropriated by Congress, and Congress can choose not to fund an Act, even, if said Bill is signed into law. I see this move by Republicans as legitimate. The The problem is that the modern federal government is bloated with bureaucracy (granted we can thank W for adding more bureaucracy than the past 5 presidents put together), and directly impacts citizens more than it should, or was intended to, than at any previous period in American history,