No More Dung Beetle Legislating!
8th February 2025
During the odious Senate reign of Harry Reid (D-NV), the normal processes for budgeting and appropriations were effectively terminated. Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), then chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, once opened hearings on the next federal budget, apparently out of some weird, archaic adherence to law, process and procedure. His Majority Leader promptly ordered it shut down.
Continuing resolutions, omnibus bills and absurdly disparate collections of provisions (recall Nancy Pelosi’s infamous remark that her health care bill had to be passed before we could see what was in it) seem to be the norm. The dung beetle paradigm of rolling many things into one big ball is how we are governed. It takes a lot for a single issue or event to get meaningful attention.
I would mind less about funds going to Peruvian LGBTQ comic books or to travelling non-binary street puppet climate theater troupes if such expenditures were actually expressly listed in the authorizing legislation and we could see who actually voted for it.