Tom Campbell: Budget Like It's 1995

Tom Campbell is dean of the School of Law at Chapman University and a professor of economics as well as law. He was a five-term Republican congressman, serving on the banking committee and the joint economic committee.

With Congress showing little sign of being able to agree on a budget, the battle has now shifted to authorizing a temporary extension of the government's ability to spend money without a budget. Without such an extension, most government spending would have to stop, throwing the country's finances once again into chaos. And even if an extension is passed now, it would expire Nov. 19, forcing a replay of the whole ugly spectacle.

A similar situation occurred in 1995, the year I returned to Congress after a special election. Then, as now, the Sept. 30 date for the end of the federal fiscal year was reached without any appropriation bills having become law. For another month, Congress passed "continuing resolutions," or short-term laws that continued the government's ability to spend at existing levels.

Then, in November, President Clinton announced that he would veto future resolutions if they did not authorize spending at higher levels. Some programs (like Social Security) were on automatic appropriations and so could continue normal operations; but most (as is the case today) were not....