TRUE OR UNTRUE. OBAMA IS RESPONSIBLE FOR NOT GETTING BUDGET PASSED.

EVER HEAR THE TEA BAGS AND NUTJOBS CLAIM "Obama failed to pass a budget" for this-or-that period? It's a popular talking point for those who are not interested in facts. Pulitzer Prize winning POLITIFACT looked into this. It is simply untrue: indeed, the President has little to do with the process, after his staff puts together the "PresBud" - an executive framework and wish list. CONGRESS does the work to formulate and pass a budget, and that, they have not done.



POLITIFACT: "?.. faulted Obama for failing to pass a budget. ?...correct that the two times Congress voted on the president’s budget requests, both times they were voted down. But the job of passing a budget resolution is not the president’s.

That responsibility falls to Congress, and even then the president doesn’t sign it. As Ellis, our expert, put it: "The president has no role in passing a budget. The president can cajole Congress about passing a budget and advocate for positions and funding levels, but in the end, Congress approves the budget resolution for their own purposes." That’s the difference between this and other claims we’ve rated which blamed Congress for inaction on the budget.

The statement contains a grain of truth, in that two of Obama’s budget requests failed to pass. But citing those votes leaves a wrong impression -- namely that the votes were anything more than political theater. Romney omitted the more critical information that passing a federal budget is the job of Congress. Given all that, we rate this statement MOSTLY FALSE.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad