Difficult? Try Downright Ugly The law provides two major deadlines on April 15. One law applies to every citizen of the United States, requires payments of substantial amounts of income following arduous calculation, is complied with by over 100 million Americans, and is punishable by fines and jail time. The other applies to 535 citizens, involves a drawing up a non-binding blueprint outlining in general terms how to spend trillions of dollars on various things including items designed to help these 535 citizens, the members of Congress, get re-elected, is rarely complied with, and is ignored with complete impunity. You think your April 15 is rough? Think again. How would you like to be in the position of these 535 individuals, who once again today have blown the statutory April 15 deadline for completion of work on the budget resolution? For a consideration of the special challenges facing these 535 people today, every day, this year, and next year (and for lord knows how long), I commend for your edification and depression: Fiscal 2010 Budget Fight. The bottom line: "That's why it's generous to refer to next year's budget debate as "difficult." A more accurate description would be "downright ugly."