{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.isakson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/what-others-are-saying?ContentRecord_id=b23ea325-1522-483c-b758-5dac3ca388cc", "Shutdown Showdown: Outcome was predictable, but longterm solution awaits", "2013-10-21", "2013", "2013-10", "Republican", "House", "GA", "Johnny Isakson", "I000055", "www.isakson.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Matt Towery \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tSeveral weeks ago, this columnist predicted that the government shutdown would end up centering on the debt ceiling and would require the threat of a semi-disaster on Wall Street in order to bring about a solution. Such was indeed the case. Regardless of the immediate fallout from the shutdown, there is little doubt in my mind that conservative Republicans in the long run will not be the scapegoats for this impasse. Their willingness to have taken a stand with consequence will have strengthened, not weakened, their political clout, if not backbone. But there emerged, through all of the bickering and blue smoke of the past few weeks, a proposal, its roots found in the Reagan years, which stands not only as a monument to cool thinking amidst the antics in Washington.\r\nSen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga) ranks at the top among U.S. senators with high conservative scorecards. Isakson, who had the courage to first seek office in his state\u2019s legislature as a Republican in a then-completely Democrat state during the year that Richard Nixon resigned, has never lacked the courage to speak his mind.\u00a0 He caught some flack last week when he bluntly stated that the shutdown was \u201ca dumb idea.\u201d And despite my contention that the shutdown will ultimately prove to be putting some \u201cbite\u201d in the GOP\u2019s bark, Isakson is right in the sense that it was handled poorly. As predicted, it allowed President Obama to use the threat of hitting the debt ceiling as a pre-Halloween \u201ctrick,\u201d to force another budgetary \u201ctreat.\u201d But Isakson, who is noted in D.C. circles for having delivered the final nail in the coffin of the idiotic Obama-led effort to unilaterally intervene in Syria, is proposing a true long-term conservative solution to these future budgetary passion plays.\u00a0 Isakson has introduced legislation (which passed the Senate as a non-binding resolution) to require that Congress appropriate under what is called a \u201cbiennial\u201d budget. That basically means two years to create and oversee a budget, rather than this annual rushed fiasco that we currently undergo.\u00a0 Under Isakson\u2019s proposal, the actual budget would be passed in odd-numbered years, while the following year would be devoted to oversight of federal expenditures. One obvious plus to the Isakson proposal would be the breathing room this would provide Congress and the nation in creating a federal budget. But the greater value to the biennial budget proposal comes in the second year. No budget in the first year, no oversight. No oversight, no reason for being in Washington until there\u2019s a budget. No reason to grandstand. No opportunity to hold hearings or demand accountability. In other words, no theater, no fun. And what are politicians without their hearings and political \u201cfun?\u201d That means we will likely start passing budgets and budgets that receive true scrutiny, if only so they can get to the fun part of picking it all apart! Like many conservatives, I\u2019ve had my fill of Republican leaders who have enjoyed too many years in the rarified air of Washington. But Isakson is a far cry from that bunch. He was a real live businessman for decades, actually lives in the same suburban house in which he raised his now grown children and still goes to the same church where he taught Bible school for years with the same wife he married long ago. In other words, he is the real deal. This past week, for the first time in 12 years, I received not one negative comment to one of my columns. My plea was to put the \u201cUnited\u201d back in \u201cThe United States of America.\u201d But one reader, while supportive of the column, noted that I failed to give a positive proposal upon which we could unite. He was right; I did not. But Sen. Johnny Isakson, a conservative Republican who was GOP before it was cool, has, along with a Democrat co-sponsor (FYI folks \u2014 you have to have one of them when they are in control) has done just that. Let\u2019s end this annual madness and start to treat our budgeting process with the same process that so many states have adopted and, in doing so, end this annual \u201ccrisis mentality\u201d used by devious politicians. That\u2019s something we can all unite around.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.isakson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/what-others-are-saying?ContentRecord_id=b23ea325-1522-483c-b758-5dac3ca388cc"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9916471317410469, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}