The Federal Budget: Politics, Policy, Process 3rd Edition

The federal budget impacts American
policies both at home and abroad, and recent concern over the exploding budgetary deficit
has experts calling our nation’s policies “unsustainable” and “system-dooming.” As the
deficit continues to grow, will America be fully able to fund its priorities, such as an
effective military and looking after its aging population? In this third edition of his
classic book The Federal Budget, Allen Schick examines how surpluses projected during the
final years of the Clinton presidency turned into oversized deficits under George W. Bush.
In his detailed analysis of the politics and practices surrounding the federal budget,
Schick addresses issues such as the collapse of the congressional budgetary process and the
threat posed by the termination of discretionary spending caps. This edition updates and
expands his assessment of the long-term budgetary outlook, and it concludes with a look at
how the nation’s deficit will affect America now and in the future. “A clear explanation of
the federal budget… [Allen Schick has captured the politics of federal budgeting from the
original lofty goals to the stark realities of today.” -Pete V. Domenici, U.S.
Senate

Allen
Schick is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings
Institution and a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. His other books
include The Budget Puzzle: Understanding Federal
Spending (Stanford University Press, 1994), with Timothy J. Muris and
John F. Cogan, and The Capacity to Budget (Urban
Institute, 1990).