When asked this week what he expected Congress to finish this year, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) wryly replied, “Postal reform.” While the senator may be engaging in a wild form of understatement, conventional wisdom inside the Beltway is that many of the must-do items and big picture ideas will not be tackled until at least a post-election lame duck session, or well into the next Congress.
On Monday, the Obama administration sent its FY 2013 budget request to Congress. Historically, the president’s budget request has been considered the starting point for the annual budget negotiation process. In that respect, this year’s budget is little different from past requests.