federal budget politics

In my Roll Call column this week, I take another shot at the Gallup poll on waste from about 10 days ago and on Steve Moore's characterization of that poll.  Thanks.  for listening.  I feel much better now.

Waste Not, Want Not — but First Define Waste and Want

Sept. 29, 2009

Gallup released a poll two weeks ago that unwittingly but perfectly explains the ever-intractable politics of the federal budget. The poll, which was released Sept. 15, found that the average American believes that 50 cents of every tax dollar collected by the federal government is wasted.

I agree with my partners in crime--Congress and the President should be able to conduct responsible budget policies even without putting any of it on autopilot.  But they don't conduct responsible budget policies, and, more importantly, we don't hold them accountable for this at election time, and so I think some type of automatic trigger could work. 

Brad DeLong linked to my post on Social Security yesterday, which set off the usual round of criticisms of a non-liberal's views of Social Security and its reform in the comment section.  Here's a summary and the next installment in the conversation.

My column on nationaljournal.com this week deals with the continuing refusal of the Bush administration to work with Congress on appropriations, or much of anything else. The reason: "winning" rather than "governing' is what's important to this White House.