The Hill News

Last week, Republican members who had pledged to support the fiscal year 2011 Omnibus Appropriations Bill changed their minds and chose instead to walk in lockstep with the House and Senate Republican leaders who believe that freezing spending at the fiscal year 2010 level is good politics.

On the face of it that approach has an appeal to it â€" no new spending. What a nice sound bite. It makes everything seem so simple.

But while one senator of the minority party gleefully remarked on the Senate floor, “We won!,” it is worth taking a minute to consider what a Continuing Resolution means â€" not for the Republican Party, but for the American people.

That it is a short-sighted abdication of Congress’ responsibility over federal funding almost goes without saying. But in fact it is worse than that.

The senators who profess to care about the security of this country, but refuse to put their money where their mouths are, bear responsibility for the consequences.

Every American family â€" yours and mine â€" knows that in a year’s time our budget priorities and the necessities of our families change from the year before. So do the budget priorities of a diverse country of more than 300 million people in a rapidly changing and dangerous world.

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