I was asked a question the other day about when the last time was that the Congress actually got its budget work done on time, before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

That date is coming up this week, and once again, the Congress isn't anywhere near finishing the dozen "appropriations" bills as they are known on Capitol Hill.

This year, Democrats stuffed a temporary budget plan to keep the government running into a finalized plan for Congress' own budget, meaning that by October 1, only one of the dozen bills will have been completed on time.

And it is the budget for lawmakers.  Like that won't be an easy one to shred on the stump in coming weeks, eh?

Of course, it's nothing new, because neither party has done its job when it comes to finishing spending bills on time.

So, when was the last time that the Congress actually got all of its appropriations work finished before October 1, when the new fiscal year begins?

Bzzzzzzt.

The answer might surprise you.  It was in 1994, when the Democrats controlled the Congress and the White House.

Of course, getting that work done on time that year didn't do much for them, because they were tossed out just a few weeks later in the November mid term elections.

So that means it has been 15 years since a Congress finished the budget on time.

During that time, both parties have run the show, and both have had a number of Omnibus budgets - in other words - things got so bad that lawmakers just rolled a bunch of spending bills into one big bill and passed that.

Sometimes it happens before the end of the calendar year, but other times it happens well after that.

That's what Democrats did earlier this year to finish the budget work from 2008.

And that's what Democrats had to do in 2007 to finish the budget work that Republicans left unfinished before they were tossed out of power in the House and Senate in the 2006 elections.

Do you think you would keep your job if you missed your deadline that often in your job?

Bzzzzzt.