Biden’s Budget Doesn’t Matter
29th March 2022
Every year, the president puts forth a budget. And every year, the media diligently reports on it as if it matters to what the government will do over the coming year.
Don’t get me wrong: budgets are important. They provide a sense of their crafters’ priorities and a roadmap for achieving their goals. But budgets don’t hold the force of law, which means — in our government — they serve as non-binding blueprints and little else.
This is especially true of presidential budgets.
No President’s budget is worth a shit. The OMB works very hard (and is paid very well) to craft a budget every year (a stack of paper several feet high), the President sends it to Congress, the opposition party in Congress publicly declares it Dead On Arrival, and Congress does whatever it wants. The President has to depend on his influence over the leaders of his own party in Congress — and whatever arm-twisting and backscratching he can perform with the other party — in order to get anything done.
It’s all Budget Theater.