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In October 2004, the Latvian parliament rejected the government's budget. The government fell after this vote of no confidence in the prime minister, and a coalition had to form a new government.

When Congress returns to Washington later this month, it is entirely likely that Republicans -- faced with bitter disputes between their moderate and conservative flanks -- will abandon efforts to agree on a fiscal 2007 budget resolution. What would that mean? Not much.

In three of the past eight years, Congress did not approve a budget resolution conference report. And with or without such a blueprint, GOP lawmakers have often ended up spending more than the president requested and more than they originally intended.

At this point, struggling for several more weeks to try to pass a budget resolution in an already shortened election year may be a waste of time, given the Republicans' seemingly intractable intraparty differences. In recent years, Congress has routinely ignored the budget resolution anyway, all the while using gimmicks and shifting money around in appropriations bills and "emergency" supplemental measures so that GOP members could at least pay lip service to the notion of curbing spending.

From a conservative's perspective, the budget resolutions pending in Congress aren't exactly profiles in courage. President Bush proposed setting fiscal 2007 discretionary spending at $873 billion -- a cut of 0.5 percent for nondefense, non-homeland-security programs -- while saving $65 billion over five years in entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid.

But, through some sleight of hand, the Senate essentially added $16 billion for domestic discretionary programs in the budget resolution it approved 51-49 in March. The Senate also rejected another round of reconciliation to curb entitlement spending, other than to allow for a debate on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In the House, the budget resolution that GOP leaders attempted to take to the floor on April 6 stuck with Bush's tight discretionary spending level, which had moderates balking. But the House plan also called for finding just $6.8 billion over five years in entitlement savings, which angered conservatives, and it dropped an ANWR provision because of moderates' opposition. Republican appropriators, meanwhile, were fuming because of a cap on emergency spending that they felt would tie their hands.

House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, will still try to pass a budget resolution when Congress returns, according to spokesman Kevin Madden. "Mr. Boehner believes it's an important step," Madden said. "It's like the first quarter of a four-quarter game."

Others would consider late April in an election year -- when Congress hopes to leave in early October -- to be more like late in the second quarter. Appropriators, after all, are eager to begin work on the fiscal 2007 spending bills. "That's probably it for the budget resolution," said William Hoagland, budget and appropriations adviser to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "If we had to wait for a budget, it would [delay] appropriations bills."

One of the key GOP moderates holding out for more spending said that his party's leadership may as well call it a day on the budget resolution.

"The budget exercise is an exercise in frustration," Rep. Michael Castle, R-Del., told National Journal. Because the budget resolution sets only an overall spending level, he said, all of the nitty-gritty battles are delayed until later in the year, when the appropriations bills hit the floors. "My sense is that it's not of overwhelming importance. I don't think we're going to waste much more time on it."

Several budget watchdogs said that because the pending congressional budget resolutions didn't call for significant spending cuts, failing to pass them is no big loss. "If the budget that you're talking about isn't a good one, then it's better not to pass a budget," said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "Most people in the country will never notice whether we pass a budget resolution or not."

Ed Lorenzen, policy director for the Concord Coalition, commented, "This year, in the absence of reconciliation and tax issues, [passing a budget resolution] isn't going to make much of a difference."

But Lorenzen and other budget analysts warned that failing to pass a budget resolution could complicate matters later in the year. "A budget resolution is designed to try to make us make these decisions early," he said.

Another expert agreed that a spending blueprint can serve as a guide. "Everybody looks at the numbers," said Richard May, a former Republican staff director of the House Budget Committee who is now a legislative consultant at the law firm Brownstein Hyatt and Farber. "Everybody gets a sense of what the priorities are."

Congress, however, doesn't really need a budget resolution to decide how much money to spend and to proceed with the appropriations bills. Parliamentary procedures allow both chambers to simply adopt "deeming" resolutions using the president's fiscal 2007 discretionary cap of $873 billion.

Such a move would face opposition from GOP moderates, particularly in the Senate, which could revert to using a fiscal 2007 discretionary cap of $866 billion, the figure projected for fiscal 2007 in the fiscal 2006 budget resolution.

Whatever scenarios play out, conservatives and moderates will continue to battle over spending levels -- causing plenty of headaches for GOP leaders. Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., the chairman of the conservative House Republican Study Committee, is vowing that unless GOP leaders agree to hold floor votes on budget reform legislation, he is prepared to use parliamentary maneuvers to delay appropriations bills.

"If we don't achieve meaningful budget process reform, it's going to be a long, hot summer during the appropriations process," Pence warned.

As for the endgame, budget insiders are already talking about a scenario called "filling the glass." Appropriators would spend all the money they have, and when they get to the last spending bill -- presumably the mammoth and politically sensitive Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations measure -- they would find they do not have enough money to fund popular programs.

At that point, appropriators would produce the needed money through all kinds of accounting gimmicks -- including calling for delayed federal paydays and tapping "advance" appropriations from future years -- to get the bill though. And that might not happen until a lame-duck session after the November election. "I wouldn't be surprised if we don't vote on Labor-HHS appropriations until after the election," Castle said.

Although failure to pass a budget resolution wouldn't change many of the year's larger fiscal dynamics, it would mean that once again, proponents of drilling in the ANWR -- who are relying upon special budget reconciliation protections barring Senate filibusters -- would be disappointed.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who has fought for ANWR drilling for decades, could still try to force Congress to accept the proposal tacked onto other legislation. "At this point, Senator Stevens has not elaborated on what steps might be needed to be taken in the future," a Stevens spokeswoman said this week.

As the year drags on and Election Day approaches, Democrats are likely to remind voters that the Republicans who control both chambers of Congress couldn't pass a budget. "Symbolically, it makes a big difference," said Tom Kahn, Democratic staff director of the House Budget Committee. "If you can't budget, you can't govern."

Just ask the former prime minister of Latvia.