This is no way to run a government. That the largest economic entity in the world is running without an actual budget in place should be shocking; that it has become routine is downright depressing. Yet we have entered a new fiscal year without a budget in 12 of the last 20 years. In a company, leadership would promptly be fired for such fiduciary malfeasance.

But the story is on the verge of getting even worse.

In August, Congress passed a massive $320 billion two-year increase to the existing spending caps, which allowed for $169 billion in additional spending for this year's appropriations —ostensibly to help move the process along. This $169 billion is not chump change even in the massive federal budget. It is enough to cover almost doubling the U.S. Army's budget, quadrupling Highway Trust Fund spending or writing a $500 check to every person in the United States.