Budget Process

ISSUE SUMMARIES

Issue summaries provide a quick reference to Centrists.Org general principles and most important links, within each topic area.

Budget and Tax (Basics) 
  Near-Term Budget Outlook
  Tax Reform
  Centrists.Org No-BS Long-Term Baseline 
  Budget Process

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Rhetoric Versus Reality in the President's Budget: A Package Touting Fiscal Discipline Laden with Hidden Costs and Unbalanced Sacrifice
02.08.2005 ||  The administration is portraying the President’s budget that was released yesterday as an austere budget that makes tough choices in order to reign in the deficit.  Unfortunately, the administration’s newfound deficit hawk vigor appears to apply only to the priorities of others, but not to any of the President’s priorities.

The Administration's Bogus War Budget
08.05.2004 ||  In its new mid-session budget, the Bush Administration understates the likely cost of military deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan by as much as $200 billion over the next 5 years.

Book Summary:  Pete Peterson's Running on Empty
07.06.2004 ||  A short, chapter-by-chapter summary of the important new book, which explains how Democrats' fealty to entitlements and Republicans' devotion to tax cuts threaten to bankrupt the nation. 

Ducking a Debate on the Debt Limit (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
06.22.2004 ||  The House leadership is using an appropriations bill designed to support our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to slip in a higher debt limit without public discussion.

Sen. Lieberman's "Present Value" Budgeting Proposal (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
05.25.2004 ||  Sen. Lieberman's proposal would require "present value" budget estimates of proposals that would expand unfunded entitlements or tax cuts, even those with "sunset provisions" designed to hide their long-term cost.

It's The Sunsets, Stupid!  CBO and JCT Should Show the Extended Cost of Expiring Provisions
05.03.2004 ||  The use of sunset provisions has distorted the budget process and can make a mockery of budget rules.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) should show the full, 10-year cost of expiring tax cuts or spending bills in the footnotes to their official estimates.

A Better Budget -- The House "Blue Dog" Alternative (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
03.24.2004 ||  The Blue Dog budget does the best job of "paying for" its initiatives and laying the budgetary groundwork for a "pay-as-you-go" ethic in Congress.

A "Duck-The-Issues" Budget -- Interpreting the Congressional Budget for 2005
revised 03.19.2004 ||  Will the Congressional budget really reduce the deficit?  The answer is "probably not."  This year's budget is a stop-gap measure that does not attempt to grapple with the larger fiscal problems facing the nation. 

Realistic Budget Targets and Some Initial Deficit Reduction Options
02.21.2004 ||  Congress should reduce spending to 19 percent of GDP and raise revenues to 18 percent of GDP by 2007.  It will require letting some tax cuts expire and "unaccelerating" others, reducing appropriations throughout the budget, and re-visiting the recently passed agriculture and prescription drug laws.

"Stop Us Before We Spend Again?"  (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
02.12.2004 ||  The Republican Study Committee (a very conservative group) and the Tuesday Group of moderate House Republicans have issued a 12 point proposal to change the budget process, so spending would be easier to control in the future (if Congress musters the will).

Medicare, Tax Cuts, and the Era of BS Budgeting (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
02.08.2004) ||  We're running deficits. We have significant on-going military requirements overseas. The baby boom generation expects entitlement benefits in 6 short years.  Isn't it time we ended the era of BS budgeting?

Preparing for CBO's Updated Baseline Projections and the President's New Budget
01.10.2004 ||  Next on the budget agenda:  deciphering the upcoming projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which will be released on January 27, and the new President's Budget, which is due on February 2.

Put Social Security Reform in the President's Budget (CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
11.17.2003 ||  Until the President and Congress allocate funds for the transition costs of reform in their budgets, the Social Security debate won't be taken seriously.

Projected Structural Budget Deficit for 2004:  $391 Billion
revised 11.18.2003 ||  Because the structural deficit is now so large, the argument that a return to robust economic growth will "solve" the deficit problem seems a stretch.

Faster GDP Growth Won't Solve the Budget Problem
09.06.2003 ||  Congress has not yet accepted the fact that taxes will have to be raised and spending cut to re-balance the federal budget.  But there is little chance the budget can be balanced without those actions.

Measuring the Cost of Unfunded Federal Spending Promises
07.14.2003 ||  By any measure, the future cost of federal spending needs and promises -- especially for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare -- will be huge. 

Medicare's Fee-For-Service "Savings" Are Really Costs
revised 07.28.2003 ||   The House and Senate Medicare drug bills contain illusory, distant-year cuts in payments to health providers that are never intended to materialize.

Time for a Tax and Budget Reform Commission
(CentristPolicyNetwork.Org)
07.09.2003 ||  Creating this Commission would show balanced leadership, deep concern for the future, and a desire for sound, long-term policymaking.

From Roll Call, July 7, 2003 (www.rollcall.com)
On Medicare and Budget Numbers, CBO is Failing
"Congress is poised to enact a Medicare drug benefit based on bad information. The Congressional Budget Office has failed its duty to provide lawmakers with a thorough and balanced analysis..."

JCT, CBO, Fed Agree:  Tax Cuts Don't "Pay For" Themselves, Could Hurt Economy.  
revised 07.01.2003 originally published 05.14.2003 ||  The Joint Committee on Taxation, Congressional Budget Office, and Federal Reserve have all produced recent studies debunking some of the claims of the most zealous tax cut proponents.