Last week, Congress passed yet another temporary spending bill to fund the federal government another three weeks this time until April 8. It is the second such bill to be run through Congress in a month-- the first keeping the government's doors open until last Friday, March 18th.

With the President overseas in Brazil on a five-day Latin America tour and the conflict in Libya dominating media headlines as well as the resources of his administration, congressional Democrats and Republicans are still having trouble coming together on the issue of the federal budget. The impasse was formally hit when the Senate as a body voted down two competing bills-- one approved by the House via the Republican majority and the other a Democratic plan implicitly endorsed by the Obama administration.

Ultimately, President Obama needs to now exercise leadership as the political head of the country. He came into the presidency in 2009 to the rhetorical tune of hope and change. At that time, his heaviest critics argued that he had not actually done anything to warrant his ascendancy to the highest office in the land and that he was too much of an academic-- too cerebral, and not enough instinct-- to act when action is needed. Conservatives played to the fears that an inexperienced politician as Obama would not know how to effectively wield the power of the presidency and that he would be lost in the workings of the Washington Beltway.

Today, it seems as though those critics may have been right at least from the standpoint of the federal budget. When Republicans and Democrats in Congress cannot seem to a compromise on an issue as important as the financing of the government and the long-term fiscal situation of America, it is the President who ultimately has the responsibility to the nation to see to it that something gets done. After all, as Obama once said, the buck stops with him.