# Trump may not submit a budget next year **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 4, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843 "2016-12-04T18:01:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/1 "2016-12-04T18:01:39Z")
One more in the continuing series of both unprecedented and un-Presidential moves by The Donald. I’m guessing he won’t submit a budget for at least three reasons (I invite others to supply additional reasons): 1) he doesn’t have the slightest idea how and won’t allow himself to be shown how, 2) he doesn’t want to give away any surprises that he has up his sleeve (like the con man that he is), and 3) he hasn’t thought that far ahead. [You Heard It Here First: Trump May Not Propose A Budget Next Year](http://www.forbes.com/sites/stancollender/2016/12/04/you-heard-it-here-first-trump-may-not-proposing-a-budget-next-year/#25389322667d) My bold. > [@](#): > > The Trump administration is seriously thinking about not submitting a budget to Congress next year . > > Although the Congressional Budget Act requires the president to submit the fiscal 2018 budget to Congress between January 2 and February 6, Trump could easily say that it was the responsibility of the outgoing Obama administration to comply with the law before the new president was sworn in on January 20. > > But while the new president not sending a budget to Congress might not be illegal, it would clearly be unprecedented. > > Every in-coming president since the Congressional Budget Act went into effect in the mid-1970s has submitted a budget. In many years, those budgets (or amendments to the outgoing president’s final budget) were submitted months after the first-Monday-in-February deadline and were truncated versions of the usual multi-volume presentation. But, a fiscal plan with the new president’s priorities was consistently released for over 4 decades. > > Long time federal budget watchers will find Trump’s unwillingness to submit a budget strange because up to now every new administration typically has been eager to submit one in its first year. The reason? **It’s the biggest opportunity that will exist to present the president’s plan for all to see and for the White House to dominate the news for a week or more as the details are released** , discussed, analyzed and promoted at congressional hearings and other forums. > > So why might the Trump administration want to punt on this major opportunity by not submitting a budget?.. Trump already dominates the news every time he urps out a tweet. _Don’t need no stinkin’ budget to make the news – the whole world is already talkin’ about me all day every day!_ Read the whole _Forbes_ article to find out what they think his reasons are. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/2 "2016-12-04T18:06:01Z")
> [@](#): > > Although the Congressional Budget Act requires the president to submit the fiscal 2018 budget to Congress between January 2 and February 6, Trump could easily say that it was the responsibility of the outgoing Obama administration to comply with the law before the new president was sworn in on January 20. Yeah? So was appointing a new SCOTUS. Imagines Obama slowly pointing a putter at Trump and looking thoughtful. “Y’know what, Little Dick? _Fuck_ you.” ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/3 "2016-12-04T18:06:08Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Read the whole _Forbes_ article to find out what they think his reasons are. Or you could summarize for us, and prevent Forbes from getting more clicks and tracking us (it won’t show the page unless I turn off AdBlocker Plus). Please? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/4 "2016-12-04T18:15:45Z")
First of all, I thought she _did_ summarize. Second, what I do in such cases is open the article in an incognito window. (I still have to see the ads, but don’t get the tracking cookie. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/5 "2016-12-04T18:23:33Z")
I hope to god Obama doesn’t bail this moron out. Let him suffer and squirm. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/6 "2016-12-04T18:25:01Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > First of all, I thought she _did_ summarize. Second, what I do in such cases is open the article in an incognito window. (I still have to see the ads, but don’t get the tracking cookie. Those are **ThelmaLou** ’s guesses for why Mr. Trump would not submit a budget (hence the phrase 'I’m guessing"). Her quoted text ends with a teaser and then she instructs us to give Forbes more money by reading the article ourselves, also a hint that there is information in the linked article that is not in the OP. I did try as you suggested and pasted the link into a new Private Window, but it seemed to have difficulty turning off my AdBlocker and thus would not display the page. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/7 "2016-12-04T18:25:22Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Or you could summarize for us, and prevent Forbes from getting more clicks and tracking us (it won’t show the page unless I turn off AdBlocker Plus). Please? There doesn’t seen to be anything concrete yet. From the article. > [@](#): > > Trump not submitting a 2018 budget is just something I was told by sources in the GOP congressional leadership. The Trump transition office did not return a call asking for comment. It was noted that Trump has not yet appointed anyone to the Office of Management and Budget ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/8 "2016-12-04T18:30:35Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Or you could summarize for us, and prevent Forbes from getting more clicks and tracking us (it won’t show the page unless I turn off AdBlocker Plus). Please? I’ll be over later to cut your PB&J sandwich into bite-sized pieces. :dubious: That may not have been a good link in my OP. Try this: [You Heard It Here First: Trump May Not Propose A Budget Next Year](http://www.forbes.com/sites/stancollender/2016/12/04/you-heard-it-here-first-trump-may-not-proposing-a-budget-next-year/#190214192667) > [@](#): > > First, it would allow Trump to avoid the complaints that always come from those the budget proposals would harm by denying them a platform to criticize the White House. No proposals on paper would mean nothing to disparage. That’s gutsy, Mr. P-word. If you don’t stick it out, it can’t get slapped. > [@](#): > > Second, it would allow the White House to avoid having to say how much its taxing and spending proposals will increase the federal deficit and national debt. Where Obama operated on the principle of \*transparency \*(let’s not debate whether he accomplished that, as I’m trying to make a point), Trump will operate on the principle of _opacity_. > [@](#): > > Third, it would also eliminate the need for the administration to publish a table with the very optimistic GDP growth promised during the campaign… > > Fourth, it would eliminate the need for the House and Senate to hold hearings on the Trump budget. … > > Fifth, …no one has yet been named [to be director of OMB]. That almost certainly will delay the development of the Trump 2018 budget … > > Finally, because the White House and Congress will be preoccupied until around the end of March with a budget resolution … the White House may think that not submitting a 2018 budget and just working with Congress will be its best chance to be successful. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/9 "2016-12-04T18:34:09Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I hope to god Obama doesn’t bail this moron out. Let him suffer and squirm. Not how he rolls. If taking up Trump’s slack would forestall a serious problem for the country, he would go ahead and do it. Knowing that it might well succeed and Trump will take credit for it, he would still do it. If he can’t fuck Trump without fucking us, he won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/10 "2016-12-04T18:41:14Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Not how he rolls. If taking up Trump’s slack would forestall a serious problem for the country, he would go ahead and do it. Knowing that it might well succeed and Trump will take credit for it, he would still do it. If he can’t fuck Trump without fucking us, he won’t. Other than W, who disappeared off the political map, and Nixon, who was shunned (and not entirely), every ex-President of our lifetimes has seen an obligation to help successive administrations in any way they could, and for the same reason they took the office in the first place: for the good of the country and its citizens. Obama is an extraordinary example of this, and let’s just bow Carter’s way, but even Gerald Ford put in a day’s overtime when called on. And now we have a “President” who apparently thinks it’s too much trouble to do the job, except as it permits him to tweet nonsense and convoke rallies chanting his name. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/11 "2016-12-04T18:54:30Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > And now we have a “President” who apparently thinks it’s too much trouble to do the job, except as it permits him to tweet nonsense and convoke rallies chanting his name. And now he tweets about an episode of SNL that makes fun of how much stupid crap he tweets. A 7 year old has more sense than this. ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/12 "2016-12-04T18:54:51Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Not how he rolls. If taking up Trump’s slack would forestall a serious problem for the country, he would go ahead and do it. Knowing that it might well succeed and Trump will take credit for it, he would still do it. If he can’t fuck Trump without fucking us, he won’t. It would be pointless, though. Obama’s proposed budgets have been largely ignored by the House for years and wouldn’t have any of Trump’s priorities or policy items that require funding. We’ll probably have another year of continuing resolutions like we have had for the past few years. If anyone is actually going to do the work of putting together a proposed budget, it’s going to have to be Paul Ryan. AARP will need to have their blood pressure medication on stand-by. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/13 "2016-12-04T18:55:26Z")
What are the actual consequences here, in terms of Obama’s decision? After all, if the Obama administration submits a budget based on its own budget priorities and principles, and based on the taxing and spending framework that Obama believes is appropriate, there’s no way on earth that Trump (or the Republican Congress, for that matter) is going to abide by it. As **ganthet** suggests, Obama’s budgets have been treated like shit by the Congress for much of the past four years, at least. And if we know that Trump is just going to pursue his own economic policies, without regard for what Obama or the Democrats want, does it really matter very much whether Obama produces a budget as part of his outgoing administration? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/14 "2016-12-04T19:07:06Z")
It’d be excellent political theater in favor of the Democrats if the one and only budget ever proposed this year is the one full of Democratic priorities and policies. Trump can’t very well say “Obama’s budget is terrible, and I’m not going to replace it, because it was his responsibility and I can’t do any better”. Wait, scratch that, Trump can very well say that, because he’s Trump. But at some point, eventually he’s going to start looking idiotic even to his base. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/15 "2016-12-04T19:09:38Z")
He doesn’t know how. He doesn’t plan on doing anything about the job. He plans to delegate, so someone else will make it, then he’ll present it as his own, to comply with the law–mostly because other people will tell him he has to, and that’s the only way it will get done. Trump is mentally ill. He’s only showing it more and more. I just hope he’s taken from office sooner rather than later. Either he’ll listen to his betters, or they’ll get him declared mentally unfit. I’m starting to think that’s always been the backup plan. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/16 "2016-12-04T19:10:36Z")
After the last few years, I’ve started to wonder if the budget would become an obsolete formality, like a declaration of war. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/17 "2016-12-04T19:12:57Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I’ll be over later to cut your PB&J sandwich into bite-sized pieces. :dubious: Thanks! I prefer it cut corner to corner, so there are little triangles. > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > That may not have been a good link in my OP. Try this: Thank you for this also. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/18 "2016-12-04T19:13:02Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Trump is mentally ill. He’s only showing it more and more. I just hope he’s taken from office sooner rather than later. Either he’ll listen to his betters, or they’ll get him declared mentally unfit. I’m starting to think that’s always been the backup plan. +100%. Except that he won’t “listen to his betters” because he has none. Being the absolute King of Bestestness is the primary sign of his instability. ---
**Author:** ![ganthet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de0a6/32.png) [@ganthet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ganthet)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/19 "2016-12-04T19:27:07Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > After the last few years, I’ve started to wonder if the budget would become an obsolete formality, like a declaration of war. It seems like it. But continuing resolutions would leave Trump unable to build his wall or hire more Customs and Border Protection/Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and immigration court personnel that would enable them just to get out of the massive current backlog of deportation cases they have now, let alone add millions to it. Or fund any trillion dollar infrastructure plan, or increase the size of the military, or… ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843/20 "2016-12-04T19:39:59Z")
> [@ganthet](#): > > It seems like it. But continuing resolutions would leave Trump unable to build his wall or hire more Customs and Border Protection/Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and immigration court personnel that would enable them just to get out of the massive current backlog of deportation cases they have now, let alone add millions to it. > > Or fund any trillion dollar infrastructure plan, or increase the size of the military, or… _points a truncated digit_ “They wouldn’t do what I want! Disloyal and very unfair! Sad!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-may-not-submit-a-budget-next-year/773843.md?page=2)