Fiscal 2026 officially closed on Sept. 30, and once again, Congress dodged a shutdown by kicking the can down the road—this time with a funding extension that runs through Dec. 11. That's a relief, but it's hardly a sign of competent governance.
Not a single one of the 12 appropriations bills has been enacted, and the Senate Appropriations Committee hasn't even released its drafts. The truth is, Congress has never passed a real budget. A genuine budget would be a single bill that accounts for all federal spending and revenue, with oversight from the committees responsible for those programs.
The current system is deeply flawed. The 12 appropriations bills cover only about a quarter of federal spending and no revenue at all. They're handled by just one committee and a small fraction of lawmakers in each chamber. The budget resolution, which should serve as the blueprint for the annual process, has been reduced to a vehicle for fast-track reconciliation when one party controls both chambers and the White House.
That's why appropriations are perpetually late and often lumped into stopgap measures. Most members have little stake in the outcome, so they have little incentive to fight for bills they didn't help shape. As a result, discretionary spending has shrunk as a share of the economy and the overall budget—from 9.7% of GDP in 1986 to just 6.2% in 2025.
Meanwhile, mandatory spending on autopilot has exploded. Direct spending, net of user fees, jumped from 9.2% of GDP to 13.7% over the same period, while revenue has barely budged, averaging 17.2% of GDP over the last four decades—just 0.2 percentage points above 1986 levels. That imbalance is why borrowing keeps climbing, fueling higher inflation, higher interest rates, and slower growth.
The fix, according to fiscal policy expert Kurt Couchman, is straightforward: Congress should craft a real budget every year, just as businesses do—looking at revenue and expenses together. That means a single bill covering all spending and revenue, managed by the committees that oversee each program, with input from every representative and senator.
All committees would review and adjust their programs annually, with the Budget Committees providing oversight. This comprehensive approach would give Congress far more control over the policies driving debt—and by extension, the inflation, interest rates, and sluggish growth that follow. It would also improve stewardship of taxpayer dollars, making it easier to catch waste, fraud, and abuse that autopilot spending currently hides.
Perhaps most importantly, letting all members—not just the majority party—shape spending and revenue decisions would mean more Americans see their priorities reflected in the budget. That could help rebuild the public's trust in Congress, which has eroded significantly. As Couchman notes, holistic budget management has worked elsewhere. Ireland, for example, suffered a debt crisis after separating spending and revenue decisions, with government debt soaring from 24% of GDP in 2007 to 119% in 2012. After integrating its budget process, Ireland's economy grew so robustly that the debt ratio fell to just 33% by 2025.
A real budget process would also foster greater cooperation among lawmakers, who would need each other's votes to advance their priorities. A more cohesive Congress, invested in each other's success, would be better equipped to serve the public. Avoiding shutdowns was never the goal—governing is. Congress won't get there by merely surviving the next deadline. It will get there by finally building a budget worthy of the name.
