Book Reviews

Books Reviewed in this article:
Allen Schick, Making Econmic Policy in Congress
Michael Babunakis, Budget Reform for Government: A Comprehensive Allocation and Management System (CAMS)
Frederick C. Mosher, A Tale of Two Agencies: A Comparative Analysis of the General Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget     

Congressional Budget Reform: Impact on the Appropriations Committees

The congressional budget process has undergone several major reforms in the last twenty years: the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 and 1987 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings I and II) and the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (BEA) that have had a direct impact on the Appropriations Committees and the appropriations process. This article evaluates that impact on the decision-making capacity and power of the Appropriations Committees.     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed:
Rudolf G. Penner, The Congressional Budget Process After Five Years     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed:
Policy Journals, Reshaping the Public Sector
John Gretton and Anthony Harrison, eds., Reshaping Central Government
Robert Maxwell, ed., Reshaping the National Health Service
Michael Parkinson, ed., Reshaping Local Government
Christine Whitehead, ed., Reshaping the Nationalized Industries
Howard E. Shuman, Politics and the Budget. The Struggle Between the President and the Congress
Peter K. Eisinger, The Rise of the Entrepreneurial State
Robert L. Bland, A Revenue Guide For Local Government
Irene S. Rubin, ed., New Directions in Budget Theory     

The 1983 Federal Budget

Editors' Note: The following material is taken, with permission of the author, from the first chapter of The Brookings Institution's Setting National Priorities: The 1983 Budget.     

Do Politicians Listen to Experts? The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 and The Capacity to Budget

Last year offered a unique opportunity to compare the ideas of experts and politicians. The 1990 Budget Enforcement Act changed the federal budget process. Allen Schick's 1990 book, The Capacity to Budget, included ideas on how to improve budgeting at the federal level. A comparison is made between the new law and the new ideas in several areas of the budgetary process: deficit reduction; resource rationing; adjustment to changing expenditures; increasing budget honesty; decreasing conflict; rou-tinizing the process; integrating the parts of the budget; and balancing claims and resources.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
David F. DeRosa, In Defense of Free Capital Markets: The Case against a New International Financial Architecture
Eric M. Patashnik, Putting Trust in the US Budget: Federal Trust Funds and the Politics of Commitment     

Mini-Symposium: The Federal Executive Budget

James Edwin Kee, Introduction
Bernard Pitsvada, The Executive Budget: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed
Naomi Caiden, Comments
Louise Fisher, Comments
Lance T. LeLoup, Comments     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
George E. Peterson and Carol W. Lewis, (eds.) Reagan an the Cities
Dennis Zimmerman, The Private Use of Tax-Exempt Bonds: Controlling Public Subsidy of Private Activity
Katherine Huang Hsiao, The Government Budget and Fiscal Policy in Mainland China     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed:
Elizabeth Dickson and George E. Peterson, Public Employee Compensation: A Twelve City Comparison
James R. Griesemer, Budgeting for Results in Local Government
Edward A. Lehan, Simplified Government Budgeting
Edward A. Lehan, Budget Making, A workbook of Theory and Practice     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this article:
David A. Stockman, The Triumph of Politics
Robert D. Vinter and Rhea K. Kish, Budgeting for Not-for-Profit Organizations
Allen Schick with papers by David Stockman, Rudolph Penner, Trent Lott, Leon Panetta and Norman Ornstein, Crisis in the Budget Process: Exercising Political Choice     

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.     

The Budget Enforcement Act and Its Survival: Congress Hears from Experts

The unpopularity of the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 grew in light of the recession, recent international events, and continuing record budget deficits. This prompted many Congress members and congressional committees to consider the future of the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. Two hearings, held in October and November of 1991, exemplify the kinds of choices facing the Congress and the type of advice that Congress has been receiving. This article reviews the testimony given at the hearings by experts with established knowledge of federal budgeting.     

An Overview of Adjustments to the Budget Enforcement Act Discretionary Spending Caps

This article reviews the adjustments that have been made to the limits on discretionary federal spending that were enacted as part of the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. Each type of adjustment authorized by that act is described, and the actual adjustments made by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget are discussed. Tables that display the amounts and timing of the adjustments are used to support the narrative. The article also discusses the relationship of cap adjustments to changes in the federal budget deficit.     

California Budget Simulation

The California Budget Challenge produced by Next10 provides a useful and intuitive tool for instructors to introduce students to public budgeting. Students will reason through a series of budgeting decisions using information provided on the fiscal and practical implications of their choices. The Challenge is updated with each budget cycle, so it provides an up-to-date simulation that incorporates the effects of current broader economic forces on state budgets. Therefore, the California Budget Challenge allows instructors to reinforce theoretical material on budgeting with an engaging “real life” application.     

The OBR and the March 2023 Budget: The Travails of UK Economic Growth and the Politics of Technocratic Fiscal Governance

This article places the Office for Budget Responsibility's commentary on the March 2023 UK Budget in political context. It explores how increased independent expert input has transformed the UK economic policy regime, focussing on the complex relationship between rules-based economic governance, independent oversight and fiscal discipline. The technocratic veneer that enshrines the UK fiscal watchdog obscures the inevitable politics of rules-based fiscal governance. The recent budget revealed OBR scepticism about how far budget measures can address the UK economy's long-term structural weaknesses. This underlined the key role for judgment inherent within technocratic fiscal oversight.     

Linking Accounting and Budget Data: A Discourse

Although the federal government has long been required to provide a reliable linkage between its accounting and budget data, it has only recently developed tools that can provide a consistent, government‐wide solution. This article analyzes these tools by a discussion of the criteria necessary for linkage and by providing examples of certain key budget linkages. In addition, the history of the development of these linkage tools is discussed. This article was developed from ideas presented by the authors while participating on a Linking Accounting and Budget panel at the Fall 2001 American Association for Budget and Program Analysis (AABPA) Symposium.     

MORE VALUABLE CONFERENCE BOOKS

Public Administration in Australia: A Watershed. Edited by JOHN POWER (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger in association with the Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, 1990, 168 pp).
Decision Making in Australian Government: The Cabinet and Budget Processes. Edited by BRIAN GALLIGAN, J.R. NETHERCOTE and CLIFF WALSH (Canberra: Centre of Research on Federal Financial Relations and Royal Australian Institute of Public Administration, ACT Division 1990, 141 pp).
Budgetary Management and Control: The Public Sector in Australasia. Edited by JOHN FORSTER and JOHN WANNA (Melbourne, Macmillan, 1990, 206 pp).     

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985

This article briefly describes the legislative history of the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance (OASDI) and supplemental security income (SSI) provisions, as well as related Medicare and Medicaid provisions, of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-272). It includes a chronology outlining the interaction of the budget reconciliation process with the development of the OASDI minor and technical changes bill (H.R. 2005) and the development of other social security related legislation resulting in proposals that ultimately combined in the overall Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985. The article also provides a detailed summary of the provisions of the legislation.     

Book Reviews

Books Reviewed:
Michael J. Boskin and Aaron Wildavsky, The Federal Budget: Economics and Politics
Joan K. Martin, Urban Financial Stress: Why Cities Go Broke
James T. Bennett and Manuel H. Johnson, Better Government at Half the Price: Private Production of Public Services
E.S. Savas, Privatizing the Public Sector
H. Edward Wesemann, Contracting for City Services
Public Securities Association, Fundamentals of Municipal Bonds
Morris Beck, Government Spending: Trends and Issues
Roger A. Freeman, The Wayward Welfare State
James Mingle and Associates, Challenges of Retrenchment: Strategies for Consolidating Programs, Cutting Costs and Allocation Resources
William Spangar Peirce, Bureaucratic Failure and Public Expenditure
G. Bruce Doern, How Ottawa Spends Your Tax Dollars: National Policy and Economic Development—1982