The answer can be found in the Constitution. If one understands that the Federal Congress is in the business of undoing undue complications to free trade that states might impose upon one another then it becomes obvious that there is little that Congress oversees which requires an on-going budget. The Federal Constitution clearly identifies the single exception to Congresses spending.
Article I, Section 8 includes the following sentence as part of the enumeration of the powers of the Congress: "To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;"
Is this provision limited to military spending or is Congress allowed to appropriate funding for everything else without limits? The Federal Constitution is careful to only affirm the exceptions rather than allowing the reader to assume them. Thus the clear direction is that Congressional budgets are assumed to be single-year items, with military spending being the exception because it is the ONLY one allowed to go beyond single-year prognostication.
So how do we have on-going programs that clearly exceed the single-year expectation and the specifically identified single-case exception - military spending? Because of the ultimate rule of power. You can do anything you want to until somebody stops you. The Constitution provides the ability to collect and spend money. Let's set up a program that spends money on the people, gets them addicted to it, and thus they will fear its termination, thus ensuring my reelection. "But it's unconstitutional," you say. Yes it is. "Well they can't do that," you say. Well they most certainly did. "Well somebody needs to stop them," you say. You are correct, sir! And that somebody is identified in the Constitution.
That "somebody" who can stop them, who in fact has a legal responsibility of oversight, is YOU... the voter. There is nobody else in the supervisory role to keep Congress accountable, to keep them in compliance with their oaths to support the Constitution of the United States. How can Congress keep ignoring the Constitution by setting up programs that do not terminate within the same budget year that they were implemented? Because you have failed to play your Constitutional role.
Remember, the people run the Federal government. Representatives are simply part-time employees that we hire so that we can keep most of our attention on running our day-to-day lives. When in doubt, kick 'em out.
