Thune: There Has to Be ‘Consequence’ for Failing to Pass Budget and Waiting until End of the Year, Sequestration Worked Before

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Senate Minority Whip Sen. John Thune (R-SD) argued that there need to be budgetary consequences for Congress failing to pass budget and appropriations bills and waiting until the end of the year to ram through spending using the threat of a shutdown.

Thune stated, [relevant remarks begin around 3:30] “[W]e have to have an orderly process that allows this work to get done earlier in the year. We can’t get up against the Christmas holiday and just then have them say, take this or leave it or we’re going to shut the government down.”

He added that “the problem with the current budget law, and with the appropriations process for that matter too, is there’s no consequence to not doing it. And that’s why we’ve got to reform the budget process so that there is actually some cost associated. You miss the deadlines, you blow by the deadlines, we don’t do a budget resolution, we never do budget resolutions, then don’t do appropriation bills. And then, here we are, at the end of the year, with the Democrats holding the good cards because they use the year-end as leverage. … And the only way we’re going to fix that is to start dealing with these issues on the front end, earlier in the year. And I think, in order to do that, if you’re going to — you’ve got to have some enforcement mechanisms in there. And they just don’t exist today.”

Thune further said that there has to be something that limits spending, and sequestration worked in the past.

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