I spent most of my day taking calls and in client meetings (it is, after all, tax season) with occasional glances at the news. At one point, I peered up and was fairly certain that something pretty exciting had happened. What with all of the media coverage drama, you’d assume that the vote in the House and Senate today over the budget actually meant something. It didn’t.
If we’ve learned anything over the past few years, it’s that very little happens in the public eye without having been worked out behind closed doors first. So, when a budget deal was reached last week, there was little doubt – at least in my mind – that it would sail through Congress and land on the President’s desk. Despite the nifty news graphics and dramatic music, that’s exactly what happened.
The measure passed in the House by a vote of 260-167 vote and in the Senate by a vote of 81-19.
But (insert dramatic dum-dum-dum here) what if someone had voted no? It would have fallen apart, right? Um, nope. You read those vote tallies, right? It was a done deal.
The bill is hardly anything to get excited about. It’s not a real budget. It’s another bandaid and will get us through early fall.
Under this “budget” – which is really just a fancy way of saying an extension to keep the government going – $38.5 billion would be from the trimmed from budget over a number of years. In the first year, only $352 million will actually be cut but the $38.5 billion sounds better in the year before an election.
The real sticking points, including tax cuts for individuals and businesses, were cleverly avoided. Expect both sides to raise the issue during the elections. But for now, it’s all finger pointing and loud speeches.
Rhett Butler in ‘Gone With the Wind’. Because… he navigated smoothly through thick and thin and at a moment when he could have been weakest, he walked away after saying to a beautiful woman, ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’. That is the single best quote from ANY movie. I know because I have been married to a beautiful woman for 42 years and Rhett’s statement would not be an easy thing to say.