'Back-Door' Base Closures
Biden Talks Loss With Fallen Troops' Families
Neely Out at GSA
More USPS Buyouts
Gimme My Discount! Deals for Feds
Buyout Watch: Who's Offering What
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Adventures in surplus land
March 1, 2001 After years of trying to get rid of the federal deficit, lawmakers are at a loss for how to plan for the latest trend-surpluses. his will be the fourth consecutive year the federal budget will have a surplus. This simple statement is remarkable considering that only nine years ago, the ...
Budget Battles: The Dark Ages Of The Federal Budget
August 23, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com The Dark Ages were a period in history when chaos replaced order, when the more or less general agreement about what should happen was replaced by tremendous uncertainty about what lay ahead and who would lead, when the rule of law was replaced by the exercise of power. In ...
Budget Battles: Convention-al wisdom
August 9, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com With the Republican convention so choreographed, the fact that the federal budget was barely mentioned must be taken as an indication that it happened-or rather did not happen-by design. Right now, the debate on the federal budget is at an absolute crossroads, where the economics, politics and processes of ...
Budget Battles: Bury the budget process
July 26, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com Mark calendar year 2000 as the official death of the current congressional budget process. With the extraordinary liberties Congress is now routinely taking with virtually all of the process's statutory requirements, it is clear that the only thing left to do is give it a proper burial. Consider the ...
Budget Battles: Time's running out
July 19, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com Forget about any revised surplus estimates, updated economic forecasts, or new short- or long-term projections you see or hear about in the next few days. The number that really matters at this point in the budget debate is that there are only 18 potential legislative days left before the ...
Budget Battles: Lessons worth learning
July 12, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com Here is another heaping serving of tidbit-like items to get your budget juices flowing after a week of fiscal R&R during the Independence Day holiday. Redefine the "Surplus," Again? The midsession review released by the Office of Management and Budget several weeks ago may have been the beginning of ...
Budget Battles: Just don't do it
June 28, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com An open letter to Congress, the White House, all presidential candidates, all House and Senate candidates and anyone else who might be interested: Don't do it. The Office of Management and Budget this week released its latest update showing that the federal budget surplus could be $75 billion or ...
Budget Battles: Campaign promises and budget dreams
June 21, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com There has been some increased federal budget activity on the presidential campaign trail in recent days. George W. Bush made a statement several weeks ago on a variety of aspects of the budget process while Al Gore made a nationally covered speech about his plans for the surplus. And ...
Budget Battles: The Clinton legacy, part three
June 14, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com The past two "Budget Battles" have reviewed many of the quantifiable budget aspects of the Clinton years. But a bit more number crunching has to be done before judgments can be made as to who should get credit. The fact that only 30 percent of the improved budget outlook ...
Budget Battles: The Clinton legacy, part two
June 7, 2000 scollender@nationaljournal.com This week's "Budget Battles" continues where last week's column left off by looking at the spending and revenue changes that have occurred during the Clinton administration. This is not as easy as it seems. Although the numbers are certainly available, the question is to what does one compare them. ...
