Celebrating the Pyrite Anniversary of the Congressional Budget Act.

The congressional budget process has not aged well after years of polarized partisan competition. Republicans, who now control government, may enact budget resolutions and reconciliation bills, or instead end the filibuster. Though debt levels need to be reduced, Republicans favor tax cuts. This places the burden on spending cuts, which lack an election mandate, and that will be opposed strenuously by beneficiaries. Republicans plan to outsource the generation of spending cuts to a nonexpert "Department of Government Efficiency," and to empower the President to impound funds. The conditions of President Trump's reelection will endanger the legitimacy of budget decisions. Summary: After the turn of the millennium, the Congressional budget process has failed to meet the aspirations of its authors.Legislative and budgetary norms have greatly weakened; debt ceiling crises and so‐called "action‐forcing procedures" have replaced regular order.The process has not prevented the growth of federal debt, which is projected to reach a level that risks a fiscal crisis.Selected process reforms could build the capacity to budget intelligently, but consideration of those approaches has been crowded out by partisan and ideological behavior.The Trump administration and many of its supporters in Congress intend to weaken the Congressional Budget Act's assertion of legislative spending powers and the neutral competence of budget analysts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]