A Congressional Quarterly article (subscription) published this afternoon puts to rest recent rumors that Congress won't enact a budget resolution this year, quoting Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) that he has a "green light" from leadership to put something together. In his remarks, though, Conrad claimed he would produce an "aggressive budget" with deficit projections well below what the White House's budget proposal forecasts.

The problem here is that Conrad will have to impose either tax increases or spending cuts – or some combination of the two – to arrive at these lower deficit figures. Conrad, being one of the least progressive members of his caucus, is not likely to rely on tax increases to arrive at his desired projections, leaving the president's budget proposal less than fully funded.

While the budget resolution does not have the force of law, it does establish a cap on how much Congress can spend on its 12 annual appropriations bills that it enacts to fund the federal government over the coming fiscal year. While most of Conrad's budget trickery will move numbers around in the out years – the budget resolution outlines tax and spending decisions for five years – it will almost certainly have an effect on FY 2011 spending.

The situation is even more troubling, because Democratic leadership in the House, which is normally the more progressive of the two chambers, is still non-committal to the idea of a budget resolution. With mid-term elections approaching, members in vulnerable districts are pushing back against a vote on a document – advisory as it may be – that lays out large deficits over the coming years. Combine that with a sizable Blue Dog coalition, and the House is not likely to be as progressive of an influence over the budget resolution as it usually is.

After eight long years of President Bush chronically underfunding essential government functions like oversight and regulation, President Obama just began providing increased funding for these operations in his budget last year. Now, with the conventional wisdom that budgets and deficits are out of control crowding out all rational thought on Capitol Hill, this spending will likely be the first causality of "fiscal responsibility."

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