As President Obama failed this week to send Congress a budget on time for the fourth time in five years, it prompted another round of finger pointing in political circles over who is to blame for the lack of action on the budget in Washington.
The answer is - both parties.
That is not a popular answer, because most people want to believe that their party does a much better job of getting the work of the nation done, and that the other party is to blame for just about everything.
But the numbers and the facts show something different.
Some examples:
Republicans have complained bitterly in recent years about how Democrats in the Senate have not acted on the "budget resolution," a non-binding document that is supposed to be approved by April 15, which sets out the framework for the budget.
The last time Senate Democrats passed that resolution was in 2009, which was the last time that the House and Senate approved a joint budget resolution.
In fact, only six times since 1976 has the Congress approved a final budget resolution by the April 15 deadline. 6 of 36. That's 16.67% of the time.
Just three times since 1974 has the Congress approved all of its budget bills by the October 1 deadline, when the new fiscal year begins.
The last time that deadline was met was in 1994, when Democrats rushed the budget through the Congress, hoping to get home fast to campaign before the mid-term elections (it didn't work out well for the Democrats.)
Last year, the House passed 7 of the 12 budget bills; the Senate approved none.
Go back to 2008 when the Democrats ran the show, and no budget bills were approved by either the House or Senate.
Rewind to 2006 when the Republicans were in charge, and only three budget bills were approved by the Congress.
Both times, the majority of that budget work was booted into the next calendar year.
The cold, hard truth is that neither party has a very good record on the budget. They all talk a big game about how the other side is to blame, but when they get the chance they don't exactly get things done.
And when you consider that the Congress has not approved the budget bills on time since 1994 - and both parties have been in charge since then - it's not one party that seems to be unable to bring budget bills to the floor, open them to amendments and vote on what should get funded and what should not get money.
Pretty simple stuff.
Except in Washington, D.C.
