Programs to cut...

[Gabu]

Okay folks, here is the drill, in order to cut the spending needed for my tax plan, we need to figure what benign government programs we can cut spending from that will be the spending cuts needed to pass the plan.

Any suggestions?

It's your tax plan; why can't you do it?

[Gabu]

Why not talk about serious stuff instead of insults.

As I said before, if you want to cut taxes, why can't you figure out how to fit it in?

The point of proposing legislation is not to declare a vague goal and then have the other senators work out the actual details.  At least you could outline what you plan to cut.

[Gabu]

I can see this is going to be a fun Senate session.

[Gabu]

Cosmo Kramer, as future Sec. of the Treasury, and I have talked about trying to introduce an actual federal budget for Atlasia next term (at least in somewhat general terms).

If there are specific programs that you would like to see some cuts enacted in, please let the Senate know.

Otherwise, please wait until you're a Senator or until a budget is introduced before you try to propose your unconstitutional tax cuts.

Thank you Sam. It should be the first priority of the new Senate to pass new budget legislation. We have gone for many months without a functioning budget. We should first pass a Senate Resolution stating how often a budget has to be proposed then we should work on a budget that will actually not get voted down by the Senate.

I believe I sent Gabu something on the budget a few weeks back.  Gabu?

Oops, so you did.  My apologies; I haven't a clue how I missed that...

For everyone else, here's what he sent me; it's an updated version of the Budget Amendment (with some cosmetic changes added by me):

The Budget Amendment

§ 1. The Senate shall be responsible for drafting and approving a budget at the opening of each individual Congress.

§ 2. The Budget must be approved by a majority vote of the Senate and then approved by the President.

§ 3. The Senate shall approve the budget before moving on to any other matter.

§ 4. After the budget is approved by the Senate, the Senate shall appropriate money raised by the budget as it deems appropriate.

§ 5. The total overspent on the budget and appropriations must not exceed 2% of the GDP except in those situations specified by Section 6.

§ 6. Section 5 shall not be in effect in a time of war or in a time of economic crisis.  A time of war shall be defined as a time when the Atlasian Senate has voted to declare war and a situation of war exists.  A time of economic crisis shall be defined as a time when the real GDP has been in decline for two or more quarters.

[Gabu]

Senator-Elect Spade I have to say that this is a very good piece of legislation. It will solve the problem of not having a working budget in place in Atlasia. The only problem that I can see is that the Senate would not be able to come to a consensus on the budget and spend a majority of time in the session on the budget while other things are not handled. This could lead to an even greater impass in the Senate than we have now. While this is the best plan that I have seen I think Section 3 should be changed to something along the lines of, "The Senate must approve a budget before the end of the first two weeks of the new session." While this will not solve all the problems it will set a firm time limit on how long the Senate must spend on the budget but that raises the question of how will this be enforced. Well we will have to iron out the problems when the Senate actually begins.

Er, as Al said, Jake wrote that, not Sam.