[Rhodes22-list] Politics and discussion between Slim, Brad, et al.

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Philip,
 
Believe it or not, I think you and I are converging.  You say Bush Sr  wasn't 
a conservative - from a fiscal perspective I totally agree with  you.  But I 
would also make that claim about his son Jr.
 
As for Reagan, the facts are the facts, average $debt/yr in Reagan's  first 
term was x3 Carter's.  Again, I'm not presenting Carter as a  paragon of 
virtue, he was just immediately before Reagan so you can compare the  2 without 
worrying a lot about inflation.  Carters $debt/yr was about the  same as Nixon's 
and Eisenhower's, as I recall.  The big jump up - and it  was a really big jump 
up - was the debt Reagan took on.  From my  perspective people that take on 
extraordinarily large amounts of debt  aren't fiscally conservative.  Reagan's 
record is in the national debt  statistics, and I think that disqualifies him 
as a fiscal conservative.
 
About the budget,  I say again,  it's the Presidents job to  prepare and 
submit to the Congress a budget. The individual Congressmen and  Senators don't 
remotely have the time and background to personally review  each line item and 
understand all the entries in that budget in depth.  You  might think they 
should, I can tell you they don't.  The Presidents  Budget represents literally 
millions of hours of staff time by persons in  the operating agencies.  The 
Senators and Congressmen understand what  they are voting on at a top level, their 
staff usually understand to a  second level, but it is simply impractical for 
the Congress and it's staff have  the detailed understanding of the budget 
submissions that staff in the  operating agencies have.  The job of Congress is 
to authorize and  appropriate funds, as appropriate, to support the budget 
that has been submitted  by the President.  I doubt there has ever been an 
instance where the  Congress took out a blank sheet of paper and prepared its own 
budget.   The Congress does not prepare the operating budget of the Federal  
government, the President does.
 
But you've whetted my interest, I don't recall whether the legislation  
requiring the President to deliver a budget is in legislation or actually a part  
of the Constitution.  If I ever get ahead of this board, I might try to  sort 
that out.
 
Dave