The budget puzzle : understanding federal spending

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Bibliographic Information

The budget puzzle : understanding federal spending

John F. Cogan, Timothy J. Muris, and Allen Schick

Stanford University Press, 1994

  • :
  • : pbk

Available at  / 31 libraries

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Note

Bibliography: p. [151]-157

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: ISBN 9780804720915

Description

In the United States, the size and composition of the federal budget is arguably the most important single issue of the 1990's, yet most debates and commentaries on the subject are largely uninformed. Virtually no one - whether government official, member of Congress, journalist, or taxpayer - seems to understand how the budget is put together and what it means. This is hardly surprising, since the budget has become extraordinarily complicated. The structure of the budget reform act of 1911 has been maintained, with the changes of additional reforms (1974, 1986, and 1990) piled on top of it, while virtually nothing has been discarded. Most people are distressed at the enormous size of the federal deficit and perplexed because highly touted plans and agreements to bring the deficit down result in an even higher deficit. Why does this happen? Why is there a growing deficit amid cries of underfunding? Why is there general agreement on a format that has proved so misleading? This book comprises a series of essays about the federal budget - how and why it has grown so large, why most "deficit-reduction" measures are either shams or predestined to fail, and why understanding budget issues is so difficult. The authors offer a new perspective, a microbudgeting approach, which requires examining in detail how the federal government makes its budget decisions. Macrobudgeting, which is concerned with totals rather than parts, has prevailed for more than a generation in both Democratic and Republican administrations; the deficit-reduction drives of the 1980's, for example, failed because the parts added up to more than the targeted totals. By contrast, microbudgeting breaks the budget down into its basic elements, carefully reviews the assumptions underlying each program or account, and critically examines the methods by which savings are computed. Using this approach, the authors demonstrate that it is possible to understand the budget process and to make informed decisions on issues of public policy. Individual essays focus on such topics as: the changing Congressional budget processes that have been critically important in contributing to the federal budget deficits that have persisted since World War II; the origins, uses, and abuses of budget baselines; and the myth of the budget reductions of the Reagan presidency.

Table of Contents

1. Why study microbudgeting Allen Schick 2. The dispersion of spending authority and federal budget deficits John F. Cogan 3. The uses and abuses of budget baselines Timothy J. Muris 4. Changes in discretionary domestic spending during the Regan years John F. Cogan and Timothy J. Muris 5. The study of microbudgeting Allen Schick Appendixes Notes Bibliograpyy Index.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780804720922

Description

In the United States, the size and composition of the federal budget is arguably the most important single issue of the 1990s, yet most debates and commentaries on the subject are largely uninformed. Most people are distressed at the enormous size of the federal deficit and perplexed because highly touted plans and agreements to bring the deficit down result in an even higher deficit. This book comprises a series of essays about the federal budget - how and why it has grown so large, why most 'deficit reduction' measures are either shams or predestined to fail and why understanding budget issues is so difficult. The authors offer a new perspective, a microbudgeting approach, which requires examining in detail how the federal government makes its budget decisions. Individual essays focus on the changing Congressional budget processes since World War II, origins, uses and abuses of budget baselines and the myth of Reagan's budget reductions.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Why study microbudgeting Allen Schick
  • 2. The dispersion of spending authority and federal budget deficits John F. Cogan
  • 3. The uses and abuses of budget baselines Timothy J. Muris
  • 4. Changes in discretionary domestic spending during the Regan years John F. Cogan and Timothy J. Muris
  • 5. The study of microbudgeting Allen Schick
  • Appendixes
  • Notes
  • Bibliograpyy
  • Index.

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