Tired of trying to keep up with all the twists and turns in Washington this week? Well, we are too! But budget watchdogs never sleep on the job and we’re following every development as Washington, yet again, goes down to the wire in passing a government funding bill.

We keep up with the federal budget news so you don’t have to. Are you interested in “What’s Going On”? You’ve come to the right place.

First, as dedicated readers of the Weekly Wastebasket know, funding for the federal government was set to expire at the stroke of midnight February 18^th until Congress scrambled to pass another stop-gap bill to keep the lights on until March 11^th. Why are we crying?, Marvin Gaye might ask. Well, we’re now almost five months into Fiscal Year 2022 and still running on Fiscal Year 2021 spending levels and priorities. That’s what’s going on, and it’s plenty to cry about.

And though Mr. Gaye sang, “There’s no need to escalate”, the latest stop gap spending bill would give a huge jump to Navy shipbuilding accounts by accelerating spending on the COLUMBIA class submarine by $1.6 billion. (This is because the Pentagon is a “special case” (cough, cough) and shouldn’t have to abide by the normal rules of Continuing Resolutions. That’s ridiculous.

“C’mon and talk to me (brother); so you can see what’s going on” as the end of the song says.  They’re obviously talking because simultaneously, the Congress is negotiating with President Biden on the size and shape of the final Fiscal Year 2022 budget, and a potential emergency supplemental bill. And, speaking of no need to escalate – see the preceding paragraph – the Pentagon may get even more “escalation” with an additional $25-$29 billion for military spending the Republicans are insisting upon to reach any agreement on a Fiscal Year 2022 Omnibus spending bill.

Money makes the world go around, folks. Add that military spending bump to rumors telling us an Emergency Supplemental could be in the neighborhood of another $80 billion for COVID-19 response and relief. Evidently the Supplemental would include $30 billion in additional spending for the Department of Health and Human Services and as much as $48 billion for aid to restaurants. This would be on top of nearly $29 billion in restaurant rescue funds since the beginning of the pandemic. (BTW, track COVID-19 and stimulus spending along with us.)

“We’ve got to find a way to bring some understanding here today”, the lyrics lament. We need understanding today, indeed. We’d like Congress to understand that rushing another $78 billion in your tax dollars (or higher deficits, more likely) shouldn’t be done on a whim. Another rumor suggests the Biden Administration may offer a federal gas tax “holiday”. That’s a bad idea for so many reasons. First, see “deficits” above. Next, doing this would further starve the already emaciated Highway Trust Fund. Third, once you take a “holiday” it’s really, really hard to return to the “real world” and get back to work. But when Congress is under time pressure, every bill becomes a smorgasbord of special interests designed to capture enough votes for passage.

So, yeah that’s what’s going on. And we can tell you what should be going on is more focus on making the tough decisions to focus federal spending on our true needs.