Should we do budgets biannually instead of annually?

[elprincipe]

Think about it. When was the last time Congress passed the necessary appropriations bills in time for the new fiscal year? When was the last time they didn't resort to a huge omnibus appropriation bill with literally trillions in spending where nobody could possibly read and know everything that was in the bill before voting on it? It's been a while.

Congress should switch immediately to doing budgets every two years instead of one. This would give them the time to properly manage what has become a nearly unmanageable monster, the massive federal budget (which is far, far, far too big, but that's another topic). They should do half the appropriations bills on even years, the other half on odd years, and budget them for two years. This would also result in more scrutiny for ridiculous programs that get shoved in at the last minute to the dreaded omnibus bills by powerful appropriators.

 

[bmulligan]

Interesting idea, bt why not make it 4 years with the coming and going of every presidency ?

 

[elprincipe]

[quote name='bmulligan']Interesting idea, bt why not make it 4 years with the coming and going of every presidency ?[/QUOTE]

Not enough flexibility. Also that would allow a congressional election to intervene. You could be elected to Congress and never get to vote on a certain part of the budget, which I think would be unfair to the voters of that district.