Talking the talk. Not walking much

The talk is about getting the president to "reduce spending"  and the Senate to "pass a budget".  Neither of these activities means much to us taxpayers.   Congress used to pass appropriations bills, one for each major department.  Such a bill  reads "the so-and-so department may spend so many billion dollars in this fiscal year".  The way to "reduce spending" is to appropriate less money.  So far no talk about appropriations bills at all, let alone reducing their size. 
  In fact, passing appropriations bills got so difficult in years past that Congress gave up attempting it.  Each bill would trigger a big time fight between those who wanted more money for their pet programs and those who wanted to cut spending.  The fights got so bad that the fiscal year would be over and no appropriations bills passed. 
   In order the keep the government running, it became customary to pass "continuing resolutions", bills reading "Your department may continue spending at last year's level." 
   In order to actually cut spending, Congress, not the president, must pass appropriations bills or continuing resolutions reading "your depart gets less money that it got last year".  That's the walk.  So far it's all talk, no walk.
  The Republicans in Congress are as bad as the Democrats in just talking the talk
  Think about voting a straight Tea Party ticket.