Evolution Of United States Budgeting

As a fiscal document recording the spending, taxing, and borrowing policies for the coming year, the U.S. budget continues to be a model for other nations. This book focuses on the various phases of budget making, its historical background in fiscal and monetary terms, and special budgetary issues, including the budget balance, credit activities of Government-Sponsored Enterprises, the future health of Social Security, and the budget's relationship to the financial and public goods aspects of the international environment. Covering major changes in the structure and process of budgeting since 1989, when the book was first published, this volume covers new ground in many aspects of fiscal and financial policy, domestically and internationally. Each section of the book is devoted to a different aspect of U.S. budgeting, ranging from the foundations of the present policies, to the annual budget cycle, to the actual methods of accomplishment, and the containment of those policies in the global framework. One section focuses on high visibility issues-Social Security, surpluses, federal debt, and entitlement programs. The book provides a valuable overview for those wishing to understand the budget process and its foundations while aspiring to help improve that process.

The United States has one of the most unique budgeting processes of any modern government. The "powers of the purse" are enumerated under the Constitution, but they were hotly debated by the nation's founding fathers. However, the lack of a legal guide for exactly how to delegate the powers, and under what conditions, has led to a process marked by power struggles-primarily between Congress and the presidency-over the last 230 years. Still, the budget and appropriations process is central to the functioning of the federal government. This book covers the transformation of American government through the lens of shifting budgeting power, while documenting the evolution of economic policy through the federal budget. As the nation and the federal government have expanded, the budget process has entirely broken down. This book also recommends changes that would help the budget process function more effectively. The chapters are organized both chronologically and topically to help the reader think through the evolution of the budget process. With its comprehensive approach to the history of the budget process-covering the entirety of US federal existence-this book will be a go-to resource for academics and public policy professionals interested in Congressional and executive history.

The federal budget impacts American policies both at home and abroad, and recent concern over the exploding budgetary deficit has experts calling our nation's policies "unsustainable" and "system-dooming." As the deficit continues to grow, will America be fully able to fund its priorities, such as an effective military and looking after its aging population? In this third edition of his classic book The Federal Budget, Allen Schick examines how surpluses projected during the final years of the Clinton presidency turned into oversized deficits under George W. Bush. In his detailed analysis of the politics and practices surrounding the federal budget, Schick addresses issues such as the collapse of the congressional budgetary process and the threat posed by the termination of discretionary spending caps. This edition updates and expands his assessment of the long-term budgetary outlook, and it concludes with a look at how the nation's deficit will affect America now and in the future. "A clear explanation of the federal budget... [Allen Schick] has captured the politics of federal budgeting from the original lofty goals to the stark realities of today."—Pete V. Domenici, U.S. Senate

The book presents a compendium of Treasury Department organizations from 1789 to the present