Let me warn you right now: I am an academic and pedant, and my writing reflects that. I certainly try to inject a little humor in my work (say, didja hear the one about... maybe later), but it generally falls flat (like the above example).
So, the topic of this diary is the federal budget process.
Wait, don't leave! I was just about to say, I'm going to try to make this interesting, but the topic just ain't that stimulating. Stick with me, and you'll come away a better person (it'll build character).
A comment I posted (try and find it) made an off-the-cuff joke about how no one really understands the budget process. While this is true to a certain extent, and while there are certainly Kossacks who get it better than me, I figured I'd take a stab at explaining it for all the rest of us troglodytes.
Clickses? Yes, my precioussss, we loves clickses...
SOOOO....
Here's how it works, roughly.
Every committee in Congress has its own responsibilities, but most of these committees are, essentially, forbidden from discussing the costs of legislation. They do discuss it, but the scope is different. See, the "normal" committees (House Armed Services, Senate Banking) consider what's called "authorizing" legislation. What that means is they decide whether a program should exist or not. When deciding that, they certainly take into account how much it's gonna cost, that's not their concern - except insofar as a cost-benefit analysis effects their decision.
So let's create a government program for tracking the process. How 'bout the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission? Bear with me, 'cause I've worked on the '05 BRAC round, so I know what I'm talking about.
BRAC '05 went to House Armed Services, which voted to authorize it (and thus allow bases to be closed), and the full House agreed. BRAC was attached to an omnibus authorization bill, which is the single most important output of the "normal" committees each fiscal year. It went to the Senate, where it went through a similar process. Then the President signed it. BRAC came to be. Pretty simple, right? After all, 'til then, it was only a bill, yes it was only a bill, and it was sitting there on Capitol Hill.
WAIT!!! Don't leave. We're not done. But, as long as you're up, get me a beer. This stuff is pretty dry material, and I'd like to wet my whistle.
[Pause while reader brings me a beer]
Thanks. Where was I. Oh yeah, we had just authorized BRAC. Now we gotta go and trace a different path for a little while. See, the government gets money to fund these programs, like BRAC, through taxes. Yes, it's obvious. Bear with me.
Tax legislation MUST, by law, originate in the House, where it's referred to the Ways and Means Committee. After passing the House, it goes to Senate Finance (point of clarification: House Ways and Means = Senate Finance, House Finance = Senate Banking), where it has to go through the whole process. Then, the President. Ta-da! Now we know where our money's coming from.
The next step is determining how much money our program gets of that incoming boodle. This is where the actual "budget process" starts. The Prez submits his budget proposal, which the House Budget Committee gets first crack at, by law. Then the full House, Senate Budget, Senate, and back to the Prez. YAY! BRAC has a budget!
I want to emphasize that the budget ONLY tells us what our program is authorized to spend. What we actually HAVE to spend is the next step, where House Appropriations begins deliberating. There are thirteen approps bills for the various functions of the government, and Congress can only appropriate money that's in the budget. Thus, all the talk over "continuing resolutions" and whatnot. Basically, if Congress can't pass a budget for the next fiscal year, what they'll do is pass a continuing resolution to allow Approps to continue attaching appropriations to this fiscal year. Make sense? Basically, if the FY06 budget gets hung up, what Congress will do is just spend during FY06, but tack it onto the bill for FY05.
Appropriations is the last step. Congress decides, out of the budget that it's passed, how it's going to allocate the actual money coming in. Remember, the tax legislation that Ways and Means passed has NOTHING to do with the budget. The two are completely separate, which is why we have to have Approps - to connect them. Basically, since the budget is almost certainly going to be greater than incoming monies, Approps determines whether the US is going to spend less than its budget or whether we're going to borrow, or what.
So, to return to our BRAC program, we've authorized it, created its budget, and decided how much of that budget is going to translate into real dollars, based on revenues. And that, roughly, is the federal budget process. Whew.
This diary is based on my experience on the Hill, and I'm not going to claim absolute certainty here. I didn't work for any of the committees in question, and nor did I work for a member who sat on them. Please feel free to correct me - but present your credentials when you do, so we know you know better.