I used to write a weekly column for NationalJournal.com called "Budget Battles." My editor and publisher there was Troy Schneider, who 11 years later was one of the founders of Capital Gains and Games.
That's also where I started giving away T-shirts (Other giveaways included mouse pads and coffee mugs. In fact, I'm using one of those mugs now at this ridiculously early time of the morning.)
Anyway, back to the T-shirts.
Most weeks you won a shirt if you submitted the correct response to a very obscure budget question and had your name selected at random from all those who got it right.
Other weeks you won a shirt if you submitted what "the judges" (actually just the BTW and me) determined was the best response to a creative question such as "If you were a chef, what would you include in a federal budget sandwich?" or "What would the name of a federal budget athletic competitiion be called?" The winning answer to the first question included "a green span of lettuce" in the sandwich. The winner of the second said it had to be called the "U.S. Open Wallet."
I haven't written Budget Battles for a while; the column, now called "Fiscal Fitness," moved to Roll Call this past January. Over a great deal of protest, the contests actually ended the year before the column moved.
But the t-shirts made a grand return yesterday when economistmom.com showed one off on her blog.
And that inspired me to give away t-shirts (or something) again, at least through the end of this year.
So here's the first question: Who was the first chairman of the House Budget Committee?
First Chairman
Hi Stan,
Brock Adams was the first chairman of the Budget Committee (although Jaime Whitten and Al Ullman preceeded him as co-chairmen of the Joint Study Committee on Budget Control).
Glad to see the return of Budget Battles -- the "I Won a Budget Battle" pennants fly proudly around here (but not, yet, from my office).
Dave
I treasure...
... my "I won a budget battle 2002" coffee mug. I might have been the only Senate staffer in the mail room with one of those.
I remember the question was some David Stockman quote, but I can't remember which one.
It's a trick question! In
It's a trick question! In fact, there is no such thing as the "House Budget Committee." Instead, annual budget resolutions in the House are drafted by a carefully selected pack of trained weasels, using what staffers describe as "a really complicated Excel spreadsheet."