Probably not the best environment in the US right now for this.
Talk about lead balloons.
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Interesting tidbit, if the numbers don't add up don't publish them.
Social Security and Medicare are mandatory spending. All the president's budget
request can do is report the projected numbers; the money goes out the door regardless what anyone (president, Congress, courts) does unless Congress changes legislation and the president signs it.
Congress passes the actual budget for discretionary spending, not necessarily with much attention to the presidential budget
request. Regular order used to be a bunch of appropriations bills covering a dozen groupings; for a long time now, it's just been "last year's number (baseline) plus some percent" to fix the bottom line number for discretionary spending and then squabbling over what fits into that number, which leads to omnibus bills and delayed appropriations (and continuing resolutions).
Some Republicans keep trying to re-assert regular order (the old way of doing appropriations), but Democrats basically refuse because intransigence is rewarded with continuing resolution showdowns and a one-way spending ratchet. The showdowns are inevitably presented to the public as "Republicans' fault" no matter who controls the House and Senate. So "baseline-plus" omnibus budgeting just goes on and on, producing occasional fights over the continuing resolutions necessary when even the omnibus bill(s) aren't passed on time.
Some Republicans keep offering to negotiate a compromise on the options for dealing with the pending mandatory spending cliffs (when the receipts-minus-outlays deficit finally exhausts the special "IOU" trust fund bonds), but Democrats basically refuse (their way or no way). When the trust funds are exhausted, an automatic cut to outlays will result. The cut is currently projected to be somewhere around 18% or 19%.
www.ngaus.org
