Danielle Lowe
Period 2
Policy Essay
A budget can simply be defined as an estimate of income and
expenditure for a set period of time. It is also a plan for saving,
borrowing, and spending and is stated in monetary terms. The
Budget of the United States Government is a proposal, made by the
President, to Congress that recommends spending levels for the
upcoming fiscal year, which begins October 1. The president
creates the proposal for the budget with the assistance of the Office
of Management and Budget, whose main duty is to provide budget
data, analysis, and advice. Once the proposal has been sent off to
Congress, where the Congressional Budget Office then publish an
analysis of the president’s proposal to aid the House of
Representatives and Senate in regards to considering the budget.
The budget proposal then goes through each chamber’s Budget
Committees to pass budget resolutions, which specify funding
levels for appropriations committees and subcommittees. They
then put together appropriation bills. Once a bill has been passed
by both chambers of Congress, it is sent to the president to be sign
into a law. However, the United States continually faces political
crises over the federal budget. The budgetary process has become
so problematic due to the governmental structures, such as a
filibuster, veto, or rules committee, and role of politics, regarding
foreign aid, environmental issues, and national defense, involved
in the process. Because of all of these problems within the system,
the current budgetary process is likely to lead to continued political
crisis.
Due to certain governmental structures, the budgetary
process has become very problematic. These governmental
structures provide an obstacle in the budgetary process because
they prevent the budget from being passed, which includes the
presence of filibusters and vetoes. A filibuster is a procedural
practice in the Senate whereby a senator refuses to relinquish the
floor and thereby delays the proceedings and prevents a vote on a
controversial issue. In relations to the budget proposal, this can
slow down the budgetary process, which is on a set time schedule
and must be passed by a certain date. A veto can also slow down
the budgetary process, essentially making it problematic. A veto is
the president's constitutional power to reject a bill passed by
Congress. If the president disagrees with what Congress has
changed or added to the budget proposal, like certain appropriation
bills, the president could veto it, which would slow down the
budgetary process. For the budgetary process to run smoothly, both
the president and both chambers of Congress must have similar
goals and interests for the budget. However, with concerning the
budget, this often isn't true due to the divided government that
exists between the legislative and executive branch.
The budgetary process is also very problematic because of
the role politics plays with the process. There are different views
concerning different controversial topics, and politicians either
take a conservative or liberal view on them. Conservative and
liberal politicians often have opposing views regarding certain
subjects, such as foreign aid, environmental issues, and national
defense, and have significant difficulty in compromising their
beliefs, especially when dealing with the federal budget. With the
issue of foreign aid, conservatives believe that America should not
allot any money in the federal budget for it. Conservatives do not
support foreign aid because it spends more money that would only
heighten America's deficit. However, those with liberal views
believe that it is necessary for the federal budget to reserve money
to be for foreign aid. They support foreign aid because they believe
that America should help foreign nations in need. Both viewpoints
are on the extremes of the different sides, making it difficult to
compromise a solution. Another subject in which the role of
politics contributes to the problematic budgetary system because it
is hard to compromise on is environmental issues. Conservatives
do not support environmental agencies such at the Environmental
Protection Agency because they create regulations that are often
costly and interrupt or hinder business ventures, which
conservatives support. They are often reluctant to agree on
significant spending in the federal budget that go to environmental
agencies because they see it as a waste of money or a threat to
decline the growth of businesses, and ultimately the economy.
Liberals feel it is necessary to include funding for environmental
agencies in the federal budget because they believe that America
should protect the environment. Liberals want to including funding
in the federal budget for environmental agencies so they can
further help reduce global warming and conserve more land for
wild animals. With such opposing views, it is again improbable
that the two sides agree on a compromise for the budget. The
budgetary process has also become problematic due to the role of
politics with in the subject of national defense. People with
conservative viewpoints believe that a significant part of the
federal budget’s spending should go to national defense. They
heavily believe in a strong national defense and that it should be a
fundamental commitment of the federal government. However,
people with liberal views believe that the federal budget should
decrease spending for national defense. They believe that true
security comes from negotiation with foreign countries. This is
another topic that is difficult for the opposing views to compromise
on, and is the most vital. The role of politics has played a
significant part in the problematic budgetary system America has
today.
It can be argued that the problematic budgetary process will
improve over time. There have been some hopeful efforts to fix the
problematic system. To help fix the budgetary process, the
Representatives Daniel Webster, Jim Rennaci, John Carney, Larry
Buschon, Jim Himes, Bill Owens, and Kurt Schrader have come up
with the proposal of the Budget Process Improvement Act of 2011.
Overall, this bipartisan reform wants to add more foresight to the
budgetary process. Also, on May 21, 2008, republican
representative Paul Ryan introduced the Road Map for America’s
Future Act of 2008, which outlines a plan to deal with entitlement
issues and to reform the federal budget process. This would make
the Congressional Budget Office to make projections annually in
comparison to these spending limits. It requires a comprehensive
review of the long-term budget outlook every 5 years. These
proposals have the potential to improve the current budgetary
process, but it is highly unlikely. Based on the impacts of
governmental structure and the role of politics, the current
budgetary process is likely to lead to continued political crisis.
Even though proposals have made to help fix the problematic
budgetary process, they all with have little impact and do not help
prevent the obstacles that have the most impact on the problematic
system, like governmental structures and role of politics, which
can not be changed or it would be difficult to by reform. The
governmental structures that hinder the federal budget’s progress
in becoming a bill, like a veto or a filibuster, are validated by the
United States Constitution, which cannot be changed. With the
divided government that exists in America today, passing a federal
budget is difficult since so many things can interrupt the course of
the proposal, and it will only continue in the future. The role of
politics will always contribute to the budgetary process and make it
problematic. Reform cannot change the views that people feel so
strong about and the tension between liberals and conservatives
has only heightened throughout the years. Judging by the state that
America’s current budgetary process is now, the system will only
get more problematic.
In conclusion, the budgetary process of America proves to
be very problematic, and will continue to be so, if not more, as the
years go by. Governmental structures and the role of politics are
major reasons why our budgetary process is so problematic and
will continue to contribute to the state of the process. However,
little is being done about the issues of the budget and at some point
there has to be a compromise between the branches of government
and between the political views so America can prosper.