An Overview of Critical Issues and Challenges

While budgeting remains a vitally important function of government, there are ongoing issues and challenges that need the attention of the policy makers, budget scholars, and practitioners, as well as anyone who has an interest in government budget. Some of these issues are conceptual, such as the need for a budget theory, while others are of much more practical significance needing careful attention. We can define these issues as macro and micro-budgeting issues using the terms LeLoup (1978) used some years ago. We can also define them as critical, needing immediate and serious attention, and ongoing, not so critical, but requiring attention, nonetheless. Of particular importance are five issues that have received varying degrees of attention over the years: First, probably more pressing than any other issue, is the deficit and debt problem, especially at the federal level, that has been growing unabated for a long time and could reach a crisis proportion. Second, the expenditure growth controversy that has been a contentious issue for a long time. Third, as an offshoot of the first two, the balanced budget argument that remains at the center of discussion whenever the issue of deficit and debt comes up. Fourth, although not as conspicuous, is the issue of a biennial budget for the federal government that surfaces from time to time. And fifth, which has not received much attention since the early 1980s and 1990s, is the need to have a separate capital budget for the federal government, in part to deal with the deficit and debt problem, and in part to simplify the budget process.