Diane Feinstein has lost her capacity for shame.

Perhaps that's putting it too strongly but I saw Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) interviewed on Fox News Sunday this morning and I was struck by her answer to a question from Shannon Bream (sitting in for Chris Wallace) about the Senate's failure to pass a budget for the past 1,130 days:

Well, we in essence have a budget. The numbers are solid. I'm an appropriator and my appropriation subcommittee which is energy and water gets an allocation based on that law that we passed, the budget law. So, it's passed and it's functioning.

So, there is no annual budget and that is true in that sense. But the allocations have gone out. My bill has just passed out of committee. I think there are four Senate appropriation bills that are now out of the committee awaiting for action.

So, nothing has stopped. The government is moving.

What the senator is saying is that because the Congress has adopted certain measures such as continuing resolutions and "emergency appropriations" that enable it to continue on a fiscal autopilot, all is well.  Her subcommittee gets its allocation, the "allocations have gone out," "nothing has stopped," "[t]he government is moving."  Notice the heavy use of the passive voice, an apt illustration of the Congress' passive attitude towards its fiduciary obligations.

There seems to be no recognition that members of Congress have a responsibility to govern.  To govern is to choose.  But choosing necessarily involves provoking opposition.  The modern politician is concerned mainly with prolonging his own career in office so he is averse to taking any position that might offend an important constituency.

In the current situation, Congress cannot afford to coast on autopilot.  The United States have incurred unsustainable debt and there appears to be no serious effort to control the accumulation of further debt.  Even when a plan is touted as addressing the deficit problem, it is usually based on economic assumptions that appear unreasonably rosy based on recent performance.

Of course, as with most things in government, we have only ourselves to blame.  When any half-serious attempt is made at controlling spending, such as Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) budget proposal, it is instantly demonized by the Democrats and the NFM (Non-Fox Media) (HT Ann Coulter) follow right along in denouncing it as a medieval scheme to kill off the undesirables.  A substantial portion of the American public will accept this characterization uncritically, repeating bumper sticker slogans as if they were intelligent arguments.

If the United States are to avoid going down the route pioneered by Greece, Americans will have to begin acting like adults and electing politicians who will treat them like adults.