Budget Uses and Challenges: A Student's Investigation into Congressional Gridlock

In every nation, a proper preparation of the budget is essential for the management of a different segment of the economy. In the recent past, Congress has had a problem in approving their budget, a process which led to a government shutdown for a given period. For instance, in the year 2018, the government shutdown started on 2th of January to 22nd of January 2018. These come after a failure by the Congress to pass the legislation to fund government operations and agencies. Also, in 25th May 2012 financial year, the Senate rejected President Obama's budget by a vote of 0-97. It thus means there is a special reason why the Senate can decide to decline the proposals of the presidents and the budget committee over a given financial year. Therefore, to ascertain the causes of these actions, I decided to carry out an interview with the government officials to ascertain the causes of government shut-down, the uses of the budget and the challenges which the budget committee experiences when they prepare the budgets for the common good of the people. Therefore, given the experience, I have had before, I decided to book an appointment with the 2 senators who were quite outspoken in the Congress.

They comprised of Lindsey Graham and Senator Mitch McConnel. I wrote letters to the two senators on 5th of May 2018 and they both promptly responded to my letters sent via email. The first response received was from the majority leader and Senator Mitch McConnel who scheduled our meeting to take place on 10th of May 2018 in his office. On the same day, late in the evening, Senator Lindsey Graham also sends its feedback. He was also very positive and scheduled our meeting to take place on 18th of June of the same year. Due to the fact that Mitch was the Senate majority leader, I believed he had more information about America's budget information, allocation and uses. I was very happy and decided to contact the Secretary of Treasury of United States Mr. Steven Mnuchin to explore in details his proposition about the state of the American budget and the problems which are faced during the preparation and implementation. These were to determine the congruence between the information got from the senators and the real statistics from the Secretary of Treasury of United States. Through the letters sent to the bureau on 20th of May 2018, I never received any feedback from them for the past 3 days. However, I decided to revise my emails given the rapid response which I got from the senators. After a careful scrutiny, I realized that the email was not delivered. I did resend the letter and on 24th of May, I received a feedback from them directing me to attend an interview with them on 30th of June 2018. These had made me change my perception about the government and the opinions which I have been holding against the government officials given that the first round of the interviews was equally successful.

I was moved by the response from the senators and the Secretary of Treasury of United States since it did go against my expectations. Initially, I believed that the senators are too busy and it is not easy to get an opportunity for them to interact with the public within a short notice. Besides, the feedback was too prompt and precise about the dates and venues for the interview. These motivated me to be engaging our leaders in various factors and policies which have a greater influence on the common American citizens. Besides, it has eroded the nervousness I had been having during my first interaction with senators Roy Blunt and John Barrasso. I can thus be in a position to encourage the public especially the youths to engage their leaders in all dimension as opposed to only focusing on the general elections and depending fully on the elected leaders for decision making. It is through direct engagement with the leaders which can enable the leaders to implement the policies and do budget allocation which aims at improving the lives of Americans based on priorities.

From the interview, there are various lessons I have learned from Senator Lindsey Graham as far as budget usage is concerned. He postulated that the budget is mainly used to control income and expenditure of the nation and enable the government to establish priorities and set a country's targets in numerical terms hence provide a good plan to responding the customers' needs. Besides, it provides a direction and coordination thus enabling the business entities to achieve their objectives and turn their strategies into a reality. These thus lead to an incline in the development and growth of the country over time. It also makes the country to work within a given scope of objectives and achieve the country's objectives in a systematic manner. However, when asked to comment about the causes of government shutdown in January 2018, he retorted that the sole reason was that the Senate declined to pass the bill with measures to delay the affordable care Act and the two houses never develop a detailed bill by the end of fiscal year hence facing the government to shut down due to lack of appropriated funds in the eve of 2018. These thus gave me a gist of information that when the two houses fail to approve the budgets, the government's operations can be sabotaged. The senator affirmed that there is a need for the government bodies to coordinate and collaborate with one another to ensure that the needs and obligations are met either in the short or long run.

On the other hand, in accordance with Senator Mitch, he postulated that budgets preparation and implementation normally faces a lot of problems from both internal and external factors. Some of the challenges which he pointed out comprise of limited resources a process which leads to the rationing of the scarce resources which are the country's disposal. He also mentioned was lack of proper internal communication, a process which leads to poor coordination between departments. In the situation this continues for a long time, it can lead to misallocation of funds, a process which leads to an incline in the misappropriation of funds. He also mentioned lack of proper vision, inability to meet the consumers' expectations, lack of political goodwill since the Senate and the parliament can decide to reject the budget due to their personal issues as oppose to the issues which concern the common American people. When asked how to rectify these problems, he said that first and foremost, it is required the country to first have a good political climate for the technocrats to be allowed to do their budget preparation work, it be soberly presented and approved in the two houses and the president to assign it to become a law. Besides, in the situation where one has a genuine concern which should be taken into consideration, all the stakeholders should be flexible to make such adjustments. However, while commenting on the government shutdown which the country had experienced in President Obama and Trump's reign, he said that such actions are not good for the common American and Senate and the parliament should avoid them at all costs. Also, the executives should take a responsibility to make corrections to certain policies which adversely affect the lives of the citizens. These will ensure a smooth government involvement in business and social activities.

In order to justify the arguments, the interview with Secretary of Treasury of United States officer Mr. Steven Mnuchin was very vital. He stated that the financial resources of a country should be allocated to the states equitably to enhance development. However, the budgets are allocated based on the needs and the long-term goals of the nation. Besides, he postulated that there is no single day a country can achieve its mandate when there is no political goodwill. For example, he said that even if an idea is very viable and the political class does not like it, then it will be prone to failure even if it would have brought transformation in the country. Therefore, he urged the general public to express their rights through voting to elect the leaders who have their interest at heart. He also said that the problems during the budget development come when there is over or undervaluation of values as well as the error of commission and omissions. However, these can be corrected once detected. He said that the main problem normally comes when it comes to implementation since most leaders embezzle the funds allocated for development.

In relation to the course, the topic has been important since it tries to unveil the internal and external forces which affect the preparation and implementation of the budgets. It tends to explain to me the manner in which states relate to one another and the manner in which the national policies affect the operations of all segments of the country. It also explores the budget uses as well as some of the challenges which the technocrats face while preparing and implementing the budgets. It also explains how the common populace can be affected over time by budgetary decisions. Most of the time, people in United States does not consult their leaders concerning the issues affecting the society. They normally rely on the propaganda and other issues on the matters which can influence the operations of the businesses and individuals in the economy. However, after these interactions, I have come to realize that the public resource management and administration is open for the citizens to participate at so as to arrive at a valid conclusion and agreement by the leaders.

References

Arestis, P., Cipollini, A., & Fattouh, B. (2004). Threshold effects in the US budget deficit. Economic Inquiry, 42(2), 214-222.

Edwards III, G.C., Wattenberg, M.P., & Lineberry, R.L. (2014). Government in America: People, politics, and policy (16th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Gingrich, N. (2015). To renew America. New York: HarperCollins.

Berman, L. (2015). The Office of Management and Budget and the Presidency, 1921-1979.

Timeline Of Senate Democrats' Refusal To Make Budget Plans Public | U.S. Senate Committee On The Budget. (2012, May 16). Retrieved from https://www.budget.senate.gov/newsroom/budget-background/timeline-of-senate-democrats-refusal-to-make-budget-plans-public

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