By U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams (R-Fla.)

Could you imagine not doing a family budget for 1,000 days or businesses going that long without a budget?  This Tuesday marks 1,000 days since the Senate has passed a budget.  A clear indication of my colleagues in the Senate’s refusal to follow through on their most basic duty: to govern.

The previous Democrat-led Congress had ample time to pass a budget.  With President Obama in the White House, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had no one to disagree or counter their proposal.  Unfortunately, they didn’t pass a budget, and instead they punted on their responsibilities.  Rather than passing a budget, a blueprint for our nation’s economy, they chose to pass legislation like cap and trade and an unpopular healthcare law.

This April, the House chose to be responsible and pass a budget. My colleague from Wisconsin, House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R), introduced a bold, responsible budget outline to address our now over $15 trillion national debt, but the Senate refused to even have an up-or-down vote on the legislation.

And rather than introducing a budget of their own, they recklessly made false accusations about the content within the legislation. Their accusations that “Republicans voted to end Medicare” were deemed by PolitiFact as the “Lie of the Year 2011.”

With our nation’s debt growing by the day, it is time to take responsibility and pass a budget.

ICYMI: Orlando Sentinel: Enjoy, Mr. President, but about that budget…

“Yet the federal government is stuck on a path where the money for those investments is getting squeezed out by the expanding costs of entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — and interest on the national debt.

Unless the president and Congress reach a deficit-reduction deal in this election year, $1.2 trillion in spending cuts will kick in starting next year. The ax will fall on both military and nonmilitary programs, but spare entitlements.

These cuts would set back Central Florida’s efforts to strengthen and broaden its economy beyond tourism.

The military cuts could eliminate billions of dollars in defense contracts and thousands of jobs in the region, including in the growing computer-simulation industry. The nonmilitary cuts could cost contracts, grants and jobs in the space program, university research departments, and Orlando’s fledgling biomedical sector.

The president and fellow Democrats argue that Republicans haven’t been willing to compromise on a budget plan. But Obama squandered the opportunity to seize control of the debate a year ago when he failed to embrace a nearly $4 trillion deficit-reduction proposal from his own bipartisan commission.

That plan included cuts in entitlements, as well as additional revenue from closing tax loopholes. It would have pre-empted the automatic cuts that are looming now. It would have charted a better course for the U.S. economy.

Obama’s plan to boost tourism is welcome, but he’s still in a uniquely prominent and powerful position to lead on the budget. He needs to take advantage of it.”

Read the rest of the article, here.

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