The Federal Budget: Spending, Taxes, and Debt

37 Budget Process Reforms to Confront the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow

The Federal Budget: Spending, Taxes, and Debt One Pager PublicationSeptember 19, 2024 By Matthew Dickerson

Introduction

The federal budget process must evolve to confront the serious fiscal challenges of today and tomorrow. The budget is on an unsustainable trajectory, threatening economic stability and fiscal capacity. Excessive spending acts as a hidden tax on all Americans, which lowers the quality of life for current and future generations. Reforming the federal budget process must be driven by clear fiscal goals and enable Congress and the public to be better informed about the true impact of legislation.

EPIC’s award -winning report, The Budget Process Must Confront the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow, shows how the federal budget process must evolve to confront the serious fiscal challenges of today and tomorrow. A modernized budget process should:

Set and Achieve Fiscal Goals

Set Responsible Budget Targets
Improve Budget Dealmaking
Eliminate the Prescriptive Timetable
Transition PAYGO to CUTGO to Restrict Further Harm
Use CUTGO for Authorizations
Strengthen the Full Faith and Credit of the United States
Emergency Spending Reforms
Make it More Difficult to Waive the Budget Rules
No Reconciliation that Increases Spending
Make it Easier to Consider a Budget in the House

Increase Transparency

Expand Availability of Data and Modeling from the CBO and JCT
Modernize the Public Access to CBO Budget Data Requirements
Require Transparency from the OMB on Unobligated Balances, Reprogramming, and Transfers
Require OMB Apportionment Data Transparency

End the Baseline Bias

Use a Current Law Baseline
Provide Supplementary Forecasts
Fix the Measure of Tax Expenditures

Improve Scorekeeping

Improve Macroeconomic Estimates
Incorporate Debt Servicing Costs for Legislative Proposals
Use Fair Value Methodology for Credit Programs
Long-Term Scoring
Account for the Costs of Transfers from the General Fund to Trust Funds
Understand How Government Spending and Taxes Fit into the Economy
Provide Cost Estimates for Appropriations Bills
End Gimmicks in Appropriations Bills
Provide Preliminary Cost Estimates Prior to Committee Markups
Provide Regular Updates on Congressional Legislative Action
Provide Updated Assumptions Regarding Major Enacted Legislation
Create an Offset Accountability Tracker

Reauthorize and Provide Oversight of the CBO and JCT

Regularly Review and Reauthorize the CBO and the JCT
Integrate the CBO and JCT

Provide a Common Language of Budget Concepts and Terminology

Misleading “Mandatory” Spending
The Budget Functions in the Budget Resolution
“On” and “Off” Budget

Promote Constitutionalism and Support Federalism

Reinstate the Earmark Ban

Invest in Congress

Expand Resources and Expertise

Encourage Fiscal Responsibility by the Executive Branch

Enforce Administrative PAYGO

Author

Matthew D. Dickerson

Director of Budget Policy

Matthew D. Dickerson is Director of Budget Policy at the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). Dickerson is recognized as an expert on fiscal policy issues, including the budget, appropriations, and entitlement reform. His articles have been featured in the Wall Street Journal , the Miami Herald , National Review , the Sacramento Bee , the Washington Times , the Baltimore Sun , The Hill , the Washington Examiner , and other outlets. Prior to joining EPIC, Dickerson served as Senior Policy Advisor on the staff of the House Budget Committee, where he helped lead development of the fiscal year 2024 budget resolution. He has a dozen years of experience on Capitol Hill, including as a senior staffer with the Republican Study Committee (RSC), the caucus of conservatives in the House of Representatives. Under four different RSC chairmen, Dickerson held senior level roles including Policy Director and Senior Policy Staff. Additionally, he served as Legislative Director and other policy positions for the late Congressman C.W. Bill Young (R-FL), a former Chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. During his tenure at The Heritage Foundation, Dickerson was Director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget. In this capacity, he oversaw a team of budget analysts and economists researching diverse subjects including spending, entitlements, budget process, tax, labor, pensions, and infrastructure issues. He has also been a Policy Manager at Americans for Prosperity, where he supervised a team of fellows and analysts covering a variety of federal and state policy issues. Dickerson is a graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Government and History.