House Passes Budget Bill for FY12

H Con Res 34: Establishing the budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2012 and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2013 through 2021, passed on 15 April 2011

In a 235 to 193 vote the House passed the FY12 budget bill which has to be come kind of record especially since the one for FY11 was only passed out of the House on the 13 April 2011 although it was due 1 October 2010. That means Cong Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his Budget Committee were able to complete the FY11 budget which the Democrats deemed passed while also passing a budget for FY12 which begins on 1 October 2011.

We expect a lot of going both and forth but the fact that there is an actual budget this year speaks volumes about the efficiency of the House Budget Committee headed by Cong Paul Ryan. Now the ball is in the Democrats court in the Senate where we will see if the Senate is serious about cutting spending along with the deficit or are they going to stick to funding their pet projects with no cuts.

In taking a look at the breakout of votes, four people didn't vote, and four Republicans voted with the Democrats: Jones (NC-3rd), McKinley (WV-1), Ron Paul (TX-14), and Rehberg (MT). We would suspect that the three who voted with Ron Paul are Paul supporters. We knew a few had been elected and with this vote looks like we most likely know who they are.

This was a very good week for the American people as the effort to get the Country back on firm financial footing has started.  What some people have to realize is that there will be given and take on the budget with the Senate as there always is -- in fact expect a few knock down, drag out fights but there is plenty of time to get the budget in place by 1 October 2011 if the Senate will do their job.  The key fact is that there was an actual budget passed out of the House today which is much earlier then a budget has been passed by the House in years.