RECOGNIZE THAT OUR CONSTITUTION REQUIRES WILLINGNESS TO COMPROMISE

Take a longer view.
Discretionary spending should be reviewed less frequently. Moving to biennial appropriations would help. It would give the Congress more time for oversight and the
executive branch more time for planning and implementation. Mandatory spending
and tax expenditures should also be reviewed, perhaps on a five or six year cycle.
Simplify the structure and reduce the number of decision points.
Reforming the budget process will be next to impossible unless the Congress is willing to
revamp the whole committee structure with respect to activities that impact the budget.
Authorizing and appropriating are no longer meaningful distinctions, and having the
major mandatory programs under the jurisdiction of the tax-writing committees is
not sensible. A better structure would be to create six to eight program or spending
committees, a revenue committee and a budget committee (to put it all together).
ABOVE ALL, RECOGNIZE THAT OUR CONSTITUTION REQUIRES
WILLINGNESS TO COMPROMISE
The Founding fathers bequeathed us a system of checks and balances that make it extremely
difficult to get decisions made unless participants work tirelessly to make it work. It requires
negotiation between the legislative and executive branches and between the two houses of
Congress, even when all are controlled by the same party. It requires negotiation and
compromise between the political parties, especially but not exclusively when different
parties are in control of one house or one branch. No budget process reform will work well
until participants realize that making this complex structure function requires a patient
willingness to try to understand each other and to work together to make responsible,
sustainable budgets