Republican Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota conservative ... is pushing the idea of making the federal budget process biannual.
Speaking recently at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., Thune said that developing two-year budgets could remove the pressure on lawmakers to spend more during election years.
The core of Thune’s idea is this: instead of fighting every year to fashion a pork-laden budget at the last possible minute, a two-year budget would be crafted in odd-numbered, or non-election years.
In election years, lawmakers and the president would focus on ways to save money rather than spending it. This would create a mindset, Thune says, focused on efficient spending rather than a last-minute, “Christmas tree” approach of sending earmarks to districts.
“What inevitably happens is that there’s a big omnibus spending bill at the end of every year that becomes a big Christmas tree for everyone’s favorite spending priority or project,” Thune said during a speech at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
“In even number years, election years, instead of spending more... we’d ask you how we could save money by doing oversight,” Thune said.
