House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters today that Democrats may not be able to pass an actual budget resolution this year because too many members will be skittish about voting for a budget with such a gaping deficit during election season, the Hill reports.

Theoretically speaking, Congress is supposed to pass a budget resolution each year, but it can get away without passing one. When Republicans were in control, there were a number of years during which they failed to pass a budget. At the same time, Democrats had pledged to be better stewards than the GOP when they took back Congress.

And either way, this, from Hoyer, sounds pretty weasely: “It’s difficult to pass budgets in election years because they reflect what the [fiscal] status is.”