Posted on 08/01/2011 5:24:18 PM PDT by republicangel
Ok, This is something that has been bothering me all day. When did baseline budgeting start? My husband says it started under Graham- Ruddman, I can't find any proof of this.
My next question, How can we get rid of this scourge on the republic?
It actually started in 73 or 74. It would take an accounting overhaul in all departments as they’ve been functioning on it for so long.
Either ‘72 or ‘74, can’t remember which.
Oddly enough, that next decade is when our current problems really started taking shape. The endless growth of government every year regardless of actions taken by the various congresses.
The genesis of baseline budget projections can be found in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. That act required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare projections of federal spending for the upcoming fiscal year based on a continuation of the existing level of governmental services. It also required the newly established Congressional Budget Office to prepare five-year projections of budget authority, outlays, revenues, and the surplus or deficit. OMB published its initial current-services budget projections in November 1974, and CBO’s five-year projections first appeared in January 1976.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseline_%28budgeting%29
I heard somewhere Paul Ryan is going to introduce a House bill to require Zero Based Budgeting.....
Baseline Budgeting Makes Real Cuts Impossible in Washington
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2756858/posts
Anyway, “The genesis of baseline budget projections can be found in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. That act required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare projections of federal spending for the upcoming fiscal year based on a continuation of the existing level of governmental services.” It was Democrats, they ran the show then, basically saying, “You know what? We’re gonna come up with a new budget that guarantees us an increase every year.”
It’s right here: “That Act required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare projections of federal spending for the upcoming fiscal year based on a continuation of the existing level of governmental services,” meaning no longer could you look back and say, “We spent X on this, and we don’t need that anymore, so we’re gonna wipe it out.” You couldn’t do that. You had to spend exactly the same.
Well, of course that wasn’t gonna last long. “It also required the newly established Congressional Budget Office,” that’s when that came into existence: 1974, the CBO, “to prepare five-year projections of budget authority, outlays, revenues, and the surplus or deficit. OMB published its initial current-services budget projections,” and that’s what the baseline is: Current services budget projection.
In other words, to maintain current services, that’s the baseline. It “required the CBO to prepare five-year projections of budget authority,” blah, blah, blah, in its “initial current-services budget projections in November of 1974, and CBO’s five-year projections first appeared in January 1976. Today’s baseline budget projections are very much like those prepared more than two decades ago, although they now span 10 years instead of five.” That’s right.
This will not be fixed — this will not be dealt with — until this current baseline is samurai-ed, ‘til this current baseline’s done away with. That’s my point. That’s my point. If we don’t spend another dime they are gonna tell us that $9.5 trillion are being cut; $9.5 trillion are not being cut; $9.5 trillion won’t be spent is what they mean, but the same amount of money spent next year as opposed to this year will be the identical thing and they would still call it a “cut.”
Thank you, I hate wikipedia, but I guess it has its place. :)
Please, please, please let this be true.
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1. H.R.796 : Social Security Protection and Truth in Budgeting Act of 2011
Sponsor: Rep DeFazio, Peter A. [OR-4] (introduced 2/18/2011) Cosponsors (None)
Committees: House Ways and Means; House Budget
Latest Major Action: 2/18/2011 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
2. H.R.821 : To require zero-based budgeting for departments and agencies of the Government.
Sponsor: Rep Ross, Dennis [FL-12] (introduced 2/18/2011) Cosponsors (2)
Committees: House Budget
Latest Major Action: 2/18/2011 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Budget.
3. H.R.920 : Zero-Baseline Budget Act of 2011
Sponsor: Rep Gohmert, Louie [TX-1] (introduced 3/3/2011) Cosponsors (34)
Committees: House Budget
Latest Major Action: 3/3/2011 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Budget.
3 bills addressing it.
One of them looks serious.
Senate and Obama would stop Social Security checks first rhough.
Of course the public service union will squeal like a stuck pig if they make any moves in that direction.
Rats none of the links work!!!!!!!!!!!!
IIRC, there was some attemps by the '94 Congress to establish what they called then "reality based budgeting". Not sure what transpired since.
That represented a needed reform.
But come 1979, at Jimmeh Cahtuh's insistence, the act was amended to add an "inflation factor" to the projections.
Recall that inflation was running 17+% during the Peanut's maladministered. As a consequence, the CBO baseline projections weren't producing enough cash to "maintain government services at their current level".
Ever since, we've had an "inflation factor" built into the CBO baseline budget projections that has borne no relationship to reality -- but has served to propel government spending into the stratosphere.
They've never been able to get rid of it. Even the Gingrich Republicans failed - even with sizable majorities in both the House and Senate.
Every single government department and agency AND the constituencies of said departments and agencies fight with every single fiber in their bodies to prevent baseline budgeting from going away.
Apparently they can, as long as they want to be obligated. “Our hands are tied. The Budget Act of 1974 says we must increase spending...”
I think other posters have the 72-74 timeframe correct. Around 1977 Jimmy Carter forced a zero-based budget approach, but it was short-lived.
An accounting overhaul? Is that all? Given the ‘overhaul’ we, the people, are getting, it would be money well spent to get the damn government back to zero based budgeting.
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