"Federal Agencies rely on annual appropriations to govern."
There is a reason for that. The United States Treasury is not a cornucopia of wealth which the State can pilfer from without end. Congress has the right and due responsibility of assessing outlays into federal programs.
The federal disaster relief fund is a disaster of a program, which to this day has not succored the dispossessed from Hurricane Katrina. And what about the massive East Coast fallout from Hurricane Irene? The Federal Government fails repeatedly to provide the minimum of care and security with federal monies.
Rather than arguing over the amount of money to be set aside for these failed programs, why not scrap funding them altogether? Remitting the funds to the states in block grants would provide for more efficient and equitable appropriation of the aid by local stakeholders.
Regarding the potentially unethical nature of threatening a government shut-down for every fresh budget bill, this is the only means left for the American People through their elected representatives to make the stringent point voiced over and over by the Tea Party Movement: cut the spending, limit government, respect the Constitution. No other means have worked to get the attention of federal legislators.
If it takes the chronic game of chicken, with Tea Party activists and liberals frustrating the Establishment mentality of "spend now, budget later," then so be it.