That title evokes an image of armed law enforcement officers storming the Capitol. But in fact, there are no police officers involved; nor any weapons. Instead, that title is in reference to an article published by The Hill on a brilliant idea by Republicans to assemble a “budget SWAT team” in one last attempt to pass a budget.

Never mind the fact that the House has already started to pass spending bills, which, for obvious reasons, are only supposed to happen after the passage of a budget. So why would House Republicans want a budget now? The answer, one supposes, is politics. They want to be able to say they voted for lower spending levels in a budget, while then voting for spending bills that blow those lower spending levels away. This is Washington’s “house of mirrors” at its finest.

The “SWAT” team will be made up of eight Republicans, which will include Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Apparently the plan was hatched by Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman Bill Flores (R-TX), who was quoted as saying:

Earlier this month, I recommended that Speaker [Paul] Ryan put together a small team of interested individuals with disparate views to develop a path forward to get a budget on the floor.

But for the life of me, I just don’t get why they want a budget so badly. To those unfamiliar with the process, the budget is really less useful than toilet paper. (At least toilet paper is useful for something.)

The budget is useless because at best it accomplishes absolutely nothing; at worst, it’s used as a faux campaign document for Republicans—a “check the box” vote for lower spending levels, before then going on to ignore their existence. Yet, in reality, it simply is a document full of gimmicks, misplaced revenues and apathetic attempts to repeal Obamacare or other reforms.

To prove my point, let’s look at last year’s budget.

Budget Promise: The Republican budget passed last year promised to cut discretionary spending for fiscal year (FY) 2017 from the statutory spending caps included in the Budget Control Act (BCA).

In total, the BCA has a FY2017 budget cap level of $1.040 trillion; yet, the Republicans passed a budget that further reduced those spending levels by $26 billion ($1.013 trillion).

As a result, the Republican budget was supposed to produce a budget deficit of $400 billion, down from $438 billion in 2015.

The budget also promised to repeal Obamacare, implement tax and welfare reform, and produce a balanced budget.

Outcome: Republicans failed to implement even a single item in their budget – not one. The Obamacare repeal never landed on the president’s desk. Tax reform was never honestly attempted, nor was there any attempt to find the $5 trillion in promised spending cuts.

In fact, Republicans actually increased spending. Instead of reducing total discretionary spending levels to $1.013 trillion as the budget promised, Republicans increased spending by $57 billion above those levels.

A congressional budget can be a noble goal. But doing one merely to distract and trick the voters is wrong. At no point did Republicans actually try to legislate the budget. It was little more than a document members touted, but had zero intention of implementing. Republicans and conservatives deserve better; if our representatives are going to pass a budget, they should try to enforce it – perhaps that would be a better use of a budget SWAT team. (For more from the author of “The ‘SWAT’ Team Just Stormed Capitol Hill” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.