When governors propose budgets for their states, they do so with the knowledge that if spending exceeds revenue, midyear cutbacks will have to be made. That very thing has occurred in both Minnesota and Iowa.
But it is different at the federal level. presidents and congresses do not have to keep their budgets in balance. Budgets proposed by the White House and approved on Capitol Hill often bear little resemblance to actual spending.
For that reason, President Barack Obama's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year is little more than a wish list. Even at that, some of the White House's presumptions should raise eyebrows.
For example, Obama is proposing that the Department of Commerce spend 34.4 percent less during the coming year than is in its budget for this year. The Labor Department fares even worse, with a 43.1 percent cut in the Obama budget.
Does anyone really believe that the two entrenched bureaucracies are capable of spending that much less? If so, a question arises: How much of their spending this year and in the recent past was really necessary?
Even with the cuts Obama promises, his $3.8 trillion budget proposal involves a record deficit. We will be very surprised if the deficit is not much greater than projected.