A 2 minute refresher course on the presidental annual budget, how it works and what it includes. Great brief on the subject; too bad the Democrats no longer believe in a formal budget or the processes that give us a budget. Its been three years, you know !!!

2008 Campaign versus the 2012 Campaign

Video:The President's Annual Budget Request

By  Robert Longley

Each year, the President of the United States submit to Congress a detailed budget request for the coming federal fiscal year on or before the first Monday in February. Here is a guide to the process of this federal budget request.

If you have two minutes, click on the link and watch -- or read the transcript

http://video.about.com/usgovinfo/The-President-s-Annual-Budget-Request.htm

Transcript: The President's Annual Budget Request

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires that the President of the United States submit to Congress, on or before the first Monday in February of each year, a detailed budget request for the coming federal fiscal year, which begins on October 1.

Functions of President's Federal Budget Request

Prepared by the president and the president's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the president's annual budget request performs three key functions in the annual federal budget process:

·         The presidential budget request informs Congress of the president's vision of the three basic elements of U.S. fiscal policy: (1) how much money the government should spend on public needs and programs; (2) how much money the government should take in through taxes and other sources of revenue; and (3) how large a deficit or surplus will result.

·         The presidential budget request tells Congress how much money the president believes should be spent on the various Cabinet-level federal functions. Within each function, the president's budget request must establish requested spending levels for smaller groups of related programs known as "budget accounts."

·         It can also be used to inform Congress of any changes in federal spending or tax policy the president intends to recommend.

How the Federal Budget is Spent

Typically, about two-thirds of all annual federal spending goes to permanently enacted "entitlement" programs. The other one-third of annual federal spending goes to optional or "discretionary" programs or projects that must have their spending renewed or "reauthorized" by Congress every fiscal year. In the next phase of the annual budget process, the House and Senate Budget Committees will hold hearings on the president's budget request. In the hearings, administration officials are called to testify and justify their specific budget requests.

House and Senate Pass Final Federal Budget

Based on the hearings, the Budget Committees will prepare a draft of the congressional budget resolution. After being amended by the full House and Senate, the congressional budget resolution will go to a joint House-Senate conference committee, where any differences will be resolved. The conference report on the annual congressional budget resolution will then be debated and passed by both houses of Congress.

End notes and acknowledgments: 

Robert Longley

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Robert has logged over 26 years of experience in municipal government in Texas and California cities. He has also served as About's Guide to U.S. Government since October 1997.