Republicans Take House (Democrats get the furniture)

(Republicans Take House (Democrats get furniture)

Al Bundy, of Married With Children fame, had a sad ritual when he had to pay bills. Remember, he sold women's shoes so his income was not that impressive to begin with. and the bills, such as they were, were often gimmicks that wife Peg got invested in. In any case, when Al Bundy had to cut a check, he had a bottle of antacids that he consumed by the mouthful.

Like the finances of the Bundy household, so it appears on how the government gets funded, chaotic and without any regular order. There are so-called Appropriations' Committees, one in the House and one in the Senate. Technically, the process goes like this: A Budget Committee decides on a budget for each department, the funding gets determined and goes to a vote on the Appropriations' Committee. Once the measure is passed, to the House or Senate Floors, the broader Chambers either approve or reject the legislation.

At least, that is how things are supposed to work. The process is known as "Regular Order." That being said, neither the House nor the Senate have operated under Regular Order in quite some time. Instead of Appropriations passing individual bills, everything crammed together in one spending measure to be either approved or rejected. This is called the "Omnibus" process and these are generally approved because its rejection closes the government. It can be politically costly for one Party or the other to be seen as one who could not keep the lights on.

The new Republican House Majority has expressed an "interest" in the restoration of Regular Order. That would have also been an ambition in a Republican Senate but that scenario never materialized. The Senate, still under Democrat control, has demonstrated no inclination to return to Regular Order themselves. As the current financing ends on December 16th, a massive spending package is being put together, with Republican votes.

One of the reasons that there is no GOP Majority in the Senate is that too many GOP Senators are not distinguished from Democrats. As has been a common refrain over these last weeks, there is a lack of vision among some Republican Senators, enough to combine for a voting bloc with Democrat colleagues.  Without a broader identity, without specified positions, what do Republicans believe in ? Democrats never seem to have that problem.