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Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
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Michael McConnell, was Assistant General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget from 1981-1983. He is now a professor of constitutional law at Stanford University. Here he tries to throw light on how the budgetary process that is required by law, and which makes the formal budget proposed by the president available for public scrutiny, was circumvented through a sequence of events starting in February 2011. The Budget Act of 1974 sets specific deadlines and a process for generating revenue, setting spending priorities, and setting the debt limit. The President first submits his administration's budget by the first Monday in February. The Congressional Budget Office has until Feb. 15 to score the budget using identical metrics for all proposals for a consistent scoring. The budget President Obama put forward in February did not take into account the growing deficit and was rejected by the Senate 97-0. The President proposed a new plan in April 2011, but the proposed budget was so vague that CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said he could not score it. The subsequent efforts in June and July 2011 were carried out in closed door negotiations between senior Republican leaders and the Obama White House. This subverts the original intention of the law. The Budget Act says that both the House and Senate hold hearings on the proposal, with testimony from the administration, "national organizations" and the "general public." Transparency, openness and accountabilility are key aspects of a proper process that is democratic and prevents the parties from engaging in blame and competing claims. The closed door negotiating sessions and the lack of a concrete written budget proposal from the President has turned the current budget process into an effort by each side to see how it can best position itself for the 2012 presidential election.
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Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
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Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
Wall Street Journal 07/14/2011
The politicizing of the 2011 budget process- Obama, Cantor and McConnell (1)
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The negotiations taking place for the U.S. budget behind closed doors is against the spirit of the Budget Act of 1974, says a former CBO assistant general counsel and Stanford professor of constitutional law. The law requires transparency and accountability and sets forth a process for public scrutiny of the budget in Congressional hearings. This has not happened and in its place both political parties are seeing this as a start to the 2012 presidential election, with the public sorely left out of the process.
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Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
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Top Democrats laud GOP debt-ceiling move - The Washington Post
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The politicizing of the 2011 budget process- Obama, Cantor and McConnell (2)
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Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
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The politicizing of the 2011 U.S. budget process- election points and Obama's political team
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Krugman points to the possibility that the President's political team may be trying to score political points with independent voters witht he budget.
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Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
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The closed door budget negotiations between Republicans Boehner and Cantor and the Obama White House
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The closed door negotiating sessions puts the budget process outside the public scrutiny that is required by law. The lack of accountability and transparency. The use of the budget and competing claims to turn this into the first phase of the 2012 U.S. presidential election.
Linked Articles
Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
Wall Street Journal 07/14/2011
Cantor emerges as key player in debt negotiations - The Washington Post
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The failure of the Obama administration in 2011 to maintain a budget process that is open and transparent, with serious public scrutiny
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Linked Articles
Budget Shell Games Are Contrary to Law
Wall Street Journal 07/14/2011
The Elmendorf Rule - The Washington Post
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