Budget Agreement

This past week, Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray reached a 2-year budget deal.  It didn't have everything I wanted in it, but the alternative which is nothing is absolutely worse.  I do agree there definitely needs to be an extension for unemployment insurance.  Unfortunately, it took way too long for Congress to go to conference committee to deal with the Fiscal Year 2014 budget.  This year both houses of congress passed budget resolutions; passing a budget resolution is not something both chambers can brag about a lot even though  the ones passed are extremely one-sided.  Bipartisanship in congress is something that we don't see enough of.  Bipartisanship used to be considered necessary to get just about anything done in Washington, but that's not something we can say in today's Washington.  The U.S. Senate is typically the institution where bipartisanship is necessary to get anything done because of a 60-vote supermajority to pass legislation.  Unfortunately, the institution today is so polarizing that Harry Reid the Majority Leader and Mitch McConnell the Minority Leader have an extremely testy working relationship.  Back in 2004, Then- Majority Leader Bill Frist campaigned against Then-Minority Leader Tom Daschle when he was running for re-election.  It's understandable to have disagreements with members of the opposite party, but it's another thing to campaign against somebody you should have a working relationship with.  Civility in the senate cuts both ways because it seems like neither leader in the senate has a good working relationship with the other.  If Washington wants to get things done for the people they represent, it's about time they roll up their sleeves and come together around the things they agree on as opposed to the things they don't agree on.

Footnotes- The Senate race in South Dakota: Enter Bill Frist | The Economist, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell don't get along. That's a major ..., Republicans Spent Year Blocking Budget Conference (VIDEO), Here's what's in Paul Ryan and Patty Murray's mini-budget deal