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Jewish World Review April 20, 2012/ 28 Nissan, 5772 We don't need no stinkin' budget? By Deroy Murdock
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | April 29 will mark three years since Senate Democrats passed a budget. This dereliction of duty flagrantly violates the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act. "On or before April 15 of each year, the Congress shall complete action on a concurrent resolution on the budget for the fiscal year," this statute states. Senate Democrats couldn't care less about this federal law. This is a milestone in human sloth. While it has taken majority "leader" Harry Reid of Nevada and Senate Democrats 36 months to conceive zero budgets, House Republicans have delivered two -- one for each year they governed. Nonetheless, Reid said on February 3: "We do not need to bring a budget to the floor this year. It's done. We don't need to do it." "This is the wrong time to vote on the floor," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D, declared Tuesday. "I don't think we will be prepared to vote before the election." Floor votes would require Senate Democrats to borrow and spend, which annoys taxpayers, or cut outlays, which aggravates liberal lobbyists and porcine government-employee unions. So, Senate Democrats break the law and, instead, demand continuing resolutions, which spend on autopilot. Meanwhile, consider what focused, energetic humans have completed in less time than Senate Democrats have consumed to accomplish nothing on the budget. -- Broad Group, a Chinese construction company, erected the 30-story Ark Hotel in just 15 days, late last year. Laboring around the clock, employees in Changsha used prefabricated modules to build an energy-efficient structure that reportedly can withstand a magnitude-9 earthquake. According to London's Daily Mail, no worker was injured on this project. -- Producer David O. Selznick and director Victor Fleming took nine months and 16 days (January 26 to November 11, 1939) to shoot, edit, and release "Gone with the Wind." This beloved Civil War epic features a huge cast, massive sets, lavish costumes, and landmark performances, all of which made it a box office smash. It eventually scored a then-record 10 Academy Awards. -- Led by Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower, Allied forces landed on France's Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944 and bravely battled Nazi Germany until Victory in Europe Day on May 8, 1945. American and allied GIs needed 11 months and 2 days to liberate Europe. -- Creating the Empire State Building required one year, three months, and nine days. Between January 22, 1930 and May 1, 1931, some 3,400 workers built what stood as the world's tallest skyscraper for 42 years, rising 1,454 feet above the sidewalks of New York. (The late, great World Trade Center won that distinction in 1973.) As documentarian Ric Burns noted, the building's steel beams were forged in Pittsburgh and whisked to the site via trains, barges, and trucks. As they were riveted into place, they still were warm -- The Pentagon's construction began on September 11, 1941 and ended one year, four months, and two days later, on January 15, 1943. Col. Leslie Groves (who later spearheaded the assembly of the atomic bombs that ended World War II) led the installation of this 6.5 million-square-foot office building, still Earth's most vast. Oddly enough, the 9/11 hijackers crashed into the Pentagon on the 60th anniversary of its groundbreaking, killing 189 people. -- According to the latest Department of Education data, 656,784 students earned MBAs and other master's degrees in 2008-09. Most secured these credentials within two academic years. -- In the War of 1812, American GIs spent two years, six months, and six days (June 18, 1812 to December 24, 1814) persuading revanchist British soldiers that we weren't kidding when we declared independence on July 4, 1776. These triumphs of human action are both private and public. Even government sometimes can finish what it starts, assuming leadership, industriousness, and responsibility. Too bad these virtues are AWOL in today's Democratic Senate.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Comment by clicking here. Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.
• 04/14/12: New Reasons to Hate Obamacare • 04/06/12: Team Obama plays energy policy for laughs • 03/30/12: Twitchy Dems need to let workers put tax-cut money in retirement funds • 03/23/12: Why not $100-an-hour minimum wage? • 03/15/12: The real (high) cost of Obama's health care act • 03/09/12: Race-baiting Dems oppose voter ID • 03/02/12: Forget kids --- today's debt hurts adults • 02/24/12: Dems arise against Obamacare • 02/17/12: The voting dead are understated • 02/10/12: Holder takes on 'racist' photo-ID cards: Prejudice is widespread --- even Obama backed them • 02/03/12: On tax plans, Gingrich trumps Romney • 01/27/12: Photo IDs can protect elections, let dead rest • 01/20/12: Romney runs hot and cold on global warming • 01/13/12: Economic freedom declines in U.S. • 01/06/12: Time to yank off Mitt's mask • 12/23/11: Boehner hands Dems a gift • 12/15/11: The U.S. could learn much from Hong Kong • 12/09/11:$687 billion is available to Congress free of strings • 12/02/11: Obama criticizes Wall Street but takes money from it • 11/18/11: Puerto Rico shows Washington the way • 11/11/11: Take heed, America: In Ohio even left-wing unionists voted to repeal ObamaCare • 10/28/11: Thanks, Netanyahu, for surge of hardened terrorists • 10/24/11:The Obama Spend-O-Rama • 10/17/11: Cain stakes his viable claim just by showing up • 10/07/11: Green jobs are national scandal • 10/04/11: Obama proudly declares class war • 09/23/11: Obama wrong about Do-Nothing Congress • 09/16/11: Obama needs Ryan's vision on jobs • 09/09/11: Reaganomics trounces Obamanomics • 09/02/11: Labor leaders to Obama: Stop killing jobs • 08/26/11: Pro-market Perry vaults over Romney in GOP race • 08/19/11: Some rich Americans will not rest until Washington boosts their taxes • 08/12/11: Hope, change and free birth control for all • 08/05/11: Debt deal does virtually nothing • 07/21/11: Dems pro-choice on abortion but little else • 07/15/11: Debt deception: If only Dems were honest and GOPers were courageous • 07/08/11: Congress' war on light bulb blows up
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