Last week the House voted on 6 different budget frameworks. Surprisingly, with so many budgets to choose from, Rep. Bill Owens couldn’t bring himself to support a single one. He’s a budget nihilist.

Owens’ refusal to support any budget last week is a classic case of a Washington politician trying to have his cake and eat it too. By opposing everything and failing to offer an alternative, Owens is in effect endorsing the status quo: more tax and spend policies and more runaway deficits that hurt middle class families and future generations.

As the saying goes, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

And it’s not like Owens had limited budget options to choose from or that he was precluded from offering his own proposal to help set the government’s priorities. The options were the Ryan budget, the Senate budget, the Republican Study Committee budget, the House Democrat budget, the Congressional Black Caucus budget and the House Progressive Caucus budget. But Owens doesn’t support anything and he’s not saying why.

Owens’ refusal to vote for a budget has left some on both sides of the aisle to question whether he even believes in budgets at all. All the evidence suggests he does not.

Plenty of households have one spousal partner that “handles the money.” Maybe his wife makes all of the budget decisions and he should’ve gotten her to go up to Congress to make a recommendation. Of course, I’m assuming there are budgets in his household. Perhaps his budget nihilism extends to the rest of his life and he’s taking a principled stand against it at his job.

Or maybe Owens, like President Obama, was just too busy filling out his NCAA brackets to bother doing the job the taxpayers pay him to do.

In the end, it’s more likely that Owens is simply more interested in preserving his own future than ours.

With over $16 trillion in debt and government programs like Medicare accelerating towards insolvency, it’s irresponsible to just say “no” and lack any opinion on how government should administer the American taxpayers’ resources.

Owens’ inaction and refusal to take a position warrants media scrutiny because the people of the 21st congressional district of New York, deserve to know where Owens stands. He needs to have an honest dialogue about how we can get our economy moving. Does he support or oppose taxes? Does he support or oppose new spending? Does he still support or does he now oppose Obamacare? These are basic questions he refuses to take a position on.

Maybe start with this simple question: If you can’t be bothered to even take a position on whether or not our country has any type of fiscal future, why the hell should your constituents send you back there?

I feel confident when it comes to retaining power and influence, this budget nihilist will suddenly have opinions again. And when he does, I hope there’s a leader nearby that will challenge him on them.

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