Did The President Sign A Law That Didn't Pass Congress?

That would appear to be the case.

Josh Marshall had the heads up-

It's not the worst breach of the constitution DC Republicans have pulled of late. But it's actually a pretty big deal if you believe in constitutional government. The recent budget actually never passed the Congress, even though the president signed it and it's now being treated as law. Take a look...

The linked-to article states-

...To those unfamiliar with the issue and controversy, the House and Senate passed a major budget bill by the narrowest of margins in both chambers, including a tie-breaking vote in the Senate case by Vice President Cheney, but it turned out that the bill passed the House and Senate in different forms.

This was not simply a transcription error, a misplaced comma or a misspelled word--something that would be plenty serious--but a $2 billion discrepancy that arose over a last-minute compromise between the two chambers over the time allowed for the rental of medical equipment for Medicare patients. After the House had passed its version and the discrepancy became known, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) unilaterally changed the House bill to match the Senate’s and then sent it on to President Bush, which he signed to great fanfare.

But a seventh-grade civics student who has done his or her homework would immediately know that what the president signed is not a law. Laws, as Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution makes clear, must pass both chambers of Congress in identical form and then be signed by the president...

This would seem to me to be a fairly big deal, politically.

It would also seems to be the type of thing those in Congress would want to look into, assuming they still care about their constitutional duties and the issue of fiscal recklessness leading this country. But last time I checked, they cared about neither anymore.

I remain hopeful that voters are going to teach them a lesson this November.

[PS- Speaking of poor conservative fiscal leadership...
US debt clock running out of time, space]