Looming Government Shutdown (again)

[Irving]

I'm hesitant to ask, because I don't know how this works. Is it safe to assume that the way Congress holds a budget hostage over personal agendas is not the way this system was designed, but is expected behavior?

Is it it possible that Congress could meet to specifically work out a budget, and nothing else? Or, because the budget is what controls all the money for all programs, that discussion is inevitably held up?

Of course the layman will say Congress should budget for required programs with available funds, then when there is no more money, stop. Sorry, no more programs. I assume it is more nuanced than that.

If budget discussions are intended to be the budget without battling over pet programs, could the president conceivably do anything to enforce the correct behavoir, along the lines of more swamp draining?

It seems to me that if party members have to attach something they want to another bill, or hold the budget hostage to get what they want, that whatever the make-up bill is cannot stand alone and should not be discussed until it can.