Your Essential Budget Reading

If you read only one thing about President Bush's FY 2009 budget, read this post by Brad DeLong and heed its conclusion:

We want to run a budget that is in surplus during boom, in deficit during recession, that borrows in order to fund investments that benefit the future, and that runs surpluses and pays down debt in order to fund future expenditures that benefit today's taxpayers. The Bushies have not done that.

Some day, there will be enough of a critical mass of people both inside and outside Washington to make sure that elected officials adhere to this. But that day is sadly not close, even with a change in the Administration next year.

But don't read just one post. Bookmark Stan Collender's blog for a free education on the way the government spends its money. This post points out a number of "off-the-wall" assumptions that were made in order to get the talking point, "surplus by 2012."

Your next stop is the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. They've released a first look on the budget and some projections based on a more realistic alternative baseline for the budget.

I posted about most of these issues last week based on the State of the Union Address.