Letter: Federal budgeting practices phony

Newsday's comprehensive, weeklong series, "Balancing Act" [Editorial, Nov. 13], fails to address one of the most crucial, but little-understood aspects of our federal budget: the Washington process of baseline budgeting, and how it differs dramatically from the kind of kitchen-table accounting used by virtually every American family.

Most of us sit down, at least yearly, and review our income and expenses in an attempt to develop a sensible financial plan. The smart ones don't project unproven, arbitrary increases in every category of spending, only to call any amount less a "savings." That would be pretty crazy, right?

Actually that's business as usual inside the Beltway. In 1987, the process was amended to automatically allow federal spending to, supposedly, keep pace with inflation. This meant Washington expenditures are projected to rise annually before allocation negotiations even begin. Rather than start at zero and review each agency, everyone was given an increase. This has resulted in spendthrift lawmakers characterizing every leap in spending that fell below the projected increase as a "cut." Politicians predicting a 5 percent increase in, say, education could then attack their fiscally responsible rivals championing 1 percent less as, "Hurting the kids!"

American families, following the federal model, would be bankrupt. Instead, it's their lawmakers hiding behind a murky, accounting gimmick called baseline budgeting, bankrupting the nation.

Jim Soviero, East Setauket