The Congressional Budget Process Was Created to Solve 1970s Problems. Inadvertently It Caused New Problems

“Anyone watching Congress trying to negotiate the U.S. budget might wonder who could possibly have designed such a process. Thanks to an endlessly complicated scheme of resolutions and committees, Washington every year cycles through a charade of planning, followed by brinksmanship over spending, followed by shutdown threats and debt-ceiling showdowns and some kind of after-deadline scramble to prevent a globally humiliating default. How did we get this system? The surprising answer is that the American budget process was born as a thoughtful reform. The Budget Act was written 40 years ago, and was supposed to fix a few big problems—in particular one caused by President Richard Nixon….” (Read more)