Incremental Thinking: "Congressional Debate on the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 (Excerpts)"

Editors' Note : The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 was designed to improve the budget-making process of the national legislature. Although this new process has been in use for less than a decade, proposals for a constitutional amendment to limit the budget powers of the federal government are advancing through Congress. In assessing the potential and problems of budget reform, it would be wise to recall the expectations that animated the introduction of presidential budgeting more than 60 years ago. The following excerpts from the October 1919 debate in the House of Representatives on the legislation that ultimately became the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 have a contemporary ring. The problems are not new, and one wonders whether the solutions are as easy as some claim.