[Rhodes22-list] Politics and discussion between Slim, Brad, et al.

[Philip]

Dave,
One thing we agree upon is the government spends too much money.  I believe
they spend it on things not Constitutionally mandated.  Here is some
information about authorization;

The following may help:  "In 1921, President Harding established the Bureau
of the Budget. The bureau, for the first time, placed formal restrictions on
the spending of government funds. The Bureau of the Budget later became the
Office of Management and Budget."  and "The Congressional Budget Office
(CBO) was established by the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (88 Stat. 302;
2 U.S.C. 601), approved July 12, 1974. The act also created a new procedure
by which Congress considers and acts upon the annual federal budget. This
new process enables Congress to have an overview of the federal budget and
to make overall decisions regarding spending, taxing levels, and any deficit
or surplus. Congress is thus provided with a mechanism through which it can
weigh the priorities for national resource allocation and explicitly address
issues of fiscal policy."

Philip


 -----Original Message-----
From: 	rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org]  On Behalf Of DCLewis1 at aol.com
Sent:	Friday, November 10, 2006 10:20 PM
To:	rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
Subject:	Re: [Rhodes22-list] Politics and discussion between Slim, Brad, et
al.


Philip,

Believe it or not, I think you and I are converging.  You say Bush Sr
wasn't
a conservative - from a fiscal perspective I totally agree with  you.  But I
would also make that claim about his son Jr.

As for Reagan, the facts are the facts, average $debt/yr in Reagan's  first
term was x3 Carter's.  Again, I'm not presenting Carter as a  paragon of
virtue, he was just immediately before Reagan so you can compare the  2
without
worrying a lot about inflation.  Carters $debt/yr was about the  same as
Nixon's
and Eisenhower's, as I recall.  The big jump up - and it  was a really big
jump
up - was the debt Reagan took on.  From my  perspective people that take on
extraordinarily large amounts of debt  aren't fiscally conservative.
Reagan's
record is in the national debt  statistics, and I think that disqualifies
him
as a fiscal conservative.

About the budget,  I say again,  it's the Presidents job to  prepare and
submit to the Congress a budget. The individual Congressmen and  Senators
don't
remotely have the time and background to personally review  each line item
and
understand all the entries in that budget in depth.  You  might think they
should, I can tell you they don't.  The Presidents  Budget represents
literally
millions of hours of staff time by persons in  the operating agencies.  The
Senators and Congressmen understand what  they are voting on at a top level,
their
staff usually understand to a  second level, but it is simply impractical
for
the Congress and it's staff have  the detailed understanding of the budget
submissions that staff in the  operating agencies have.  The job of Congress
is
to authorize and  appropriate funds, as appropriate, to support the budget
that has been submitted  by the President.  I doubt there has ever been an
instance where the  Congress took out a blank sheet of paper and prepared
its own
budget.   The Congress does not prepare the operating budget of the Federal
government, the President does.

But you've whetted my interest, I don't recall whether the legislation
requiring the President to deliver a budget is in legislation or actually a
part
of the Constitution.  If I ever get ahead of this board, I might try to
sort
that out.

Dave
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