It is no great achievement for lawmakers simply to do what the law requires of them. Still, the passage of budget resolutions last month by both houses of Congress—after the Senate’s four years of neglect—does seem noteworthy. The question now is: What next? In the absence of normal budgeting, congressional leaders have resorted to manufactured, ad hoc fiscal procedures…

With the government’s spending and debt crisis drawing nearer, the congressional budget for fiscal year (FY) 2014 marks a critical moment for the country. The chance to turn back Washington’s unyielding and unsustainable growth, led by the Obama Administration’s progressive ambitions, is shrinking. The budget must play a key part in restoring the principles that made…

Because most of the fiscal cliff debate focused compulsively on how much Congress would raise taxes, the spending side of the argument nearly became an afterthought. This resulted in another shell game that added net spending and set up another confrontation in less than two months. The agreement delays until March 1 $110 billion in 2013 across-the-board spending cuts…

Just days after concluding the fiscal cliff debacle, Congress is about to embark on another spending spree—this time exploiting loopholes in the budget process to pile on new so-called emergency spending. The House on Friday will consider the first installment of a bloated $60 billion measure ostensibly aimed at providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. Most of…

If plunging over the fiscal cliff [1] in January would threaten the nation’s economy, Congress and the President could also do harm in another way: by dodging the cliff through gimmicks and bogus budget cuts that create only illusory savings in a “grand” budget bargain. Both the White House and lawmakers have shown a propensity for claiming savings where none exist.…

One of the major complications in the current fiscal cliff debate is that both sides are overreaching, trying to tie a near-term resolution to a sweeping deficit reduction plan that would address the longer-term budgetary crisis looming in the years ahead. They see the cliff negotiations as a stage for a “grand bargain” on the budget between the President and…

Having squandered most of 2012 with posturing and delay, Congress and the President are now careening toward a budgetary precipice of their own making. The so-called fiscal cliff will be reached just after New Year’s Eve—bringing a nearly $500 billion tax hike in 2013 and a devastating 10 percent reduction in national defense spending—unless lawmakers and the White House…

The House Appropriations Committee website proudly displays Congress’s constitutional authority over the federal government’s purse strings: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury but in Consequence of Appropriations made by law” (Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7). That is about best that can be said, however, for the six-month fiscal year (FY) 2013 continuing…

Three key messages emerge from the updated budget outlook released today by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)[1]: For the fourth year in a row, the federal government in 2012 will run a budget deficit exceeding $1 trillion; The nation’s fiscal and economic challenges going forward remain both daunting and unaddressed, with continued record spending…

With several extraordinary spending and tax challenges facing Congress, at least one part of this year’s budgeting should be fairly routine: the annual appropriations process. Both the House and the Senate have already advanced many of these spending bills, which fund the operations of government agencies. They should make a point of completing them all in a deliberate,…

Not surprisingly, the latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) long-term budget outlook projects a disturbing and unsustainable rate of growth in federal spending, deficits, and debt. Equally troubling, however, is the growing urgency of the problem: The “long term” is drawing nearer. The longer Congress delays, the more wrenching will be the policy changes needed to…