Re-Treat ? Hell !

(Re-Treat ? Hell !)

After the U.S. declared war on the Central Powers in March, 1917, it the balance of that year and well into 1918 before the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under John J. "Blackjack" Pershing, first saw combat on the Western Front. In the Battle of Belleau Wood, fought by U.S. Marines in early June, 1918, as the "Leathernecks" were being compressed, a French officer recommended a retreat. In response, a Marine reportedly remarked, "Retreat hell, we just got here."

As one can guess, there is the budget battle between House Republicans and Senate Democrats, and of course, President Biden. The Senate wants to add another $13.4 billion in additional spending but the House position and those of its Members is set in concrete. If the previously agreed debt ceiling passed recently was the top, the House Republican Conference will be seeking to reduce outlays further, not any expansion.

Now the way the story plays, there will be an impasse. There will be a threat of government closure and the GOP gets blamed, That will have to be okay this time. Also, the Pentagon will have to stop being inviolate. If spending discipline in any sense of the word is viable in any context, then it will need to be House Republicans on point. The process in the House in the retention of Regular Order and a return to Appropriating the Twelve Departments individually, will be following the budget blue-print and as each spending bill is passed in order, the sum total will be less than the previously agreed limits.

The Senate, on the other hand, has no such process. That Body has not passed a budget in years, even though there is a head of a Senate Appropriations Committee. Senate spending bills don't get passed Department by Department. In essence, the Senate uses an omnibus process, putting eggs in one basket. With this hodgepodge of system of budgeting, and of course differing priorities, this could make for an interesting discussion. Who actually prevail remains to be seen.