The Federal Budget: Priorities or Process

Sen. Timothy Wirth (D-Colorado) spent the first twenty minutes of this session explaining the annual conference for his constituents and how the Colorado citizens were selected to be brought to Washington, DC. The day of the seminar, the debate on the floor of the Senate focused on the federal budget, specifically social security taxes and the presidential election “check-off” funds were of issue. Mr. Robert Reischauer, director of the Congressional Budget Office, put the political and public policy issues of the conference into focus by providing a framework for how programs are tied to the federal budget. Sen. Wirth prefaced CBO Director Robert Reischauer’s remarks by saying, “You really can’t understand what we’re doing without getting some flavor of the flows of money in and out.” At root, the process is for Congress to raise money through taxes and then spend it for the public, according to Wirth. Mr. Reischauer talked about how much and where the money actually comes from, and t close