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Originally Posted by Guest
Because it very seldom works.
Having spent a good portion of my career developing and managing very large expense & capital budgets...we went through a short phase of 'zero-based budgeting.'
Even making the huge effort of breaking down individual functions, the documented hours for each function, applying actual hourly (including burden & benefits)/material/equipment costs and using hard previous years data to prove the quantity of those functions I identified...it came down to "our profit goal for next year will not allow the budget you're requesting." 
Of course there are opportunities to decrease spending.
It all boils down to... whose Ox is getting gored.
What I think is wasteful and superfluous, will not be what you think is...so who gets to make that choice?
Especially in the public/political arena, so compromises are made and everyone gets a little...and loses a lot.
If I were Governor of a state and was given full, final and autonomous authority over the budget...I guarantee I could quickly balance it. 
I can also guarantee that given you are such a simpleton, you would be squealing and screeching...about what I cut. 
Oh well, I can only fantasize of seeing your bloated & enraged face...when that occurred.  |
The corporation I worked for utilized zero base budgeting and it worked very well. Our industry was heavily regulated and so we had to be accurate or be penalized.
We kept a close watch on budgets. All budgeted items ,personnel, equipment, compensation, benefits salary increases, promotions ,etc had to be accompanied with a written rationale to validate need/ merit. We did an in depth retrospective review every August followed by a projection through year end.
There is so much redundacy in the congressional budgets that they could skip a budget year and no one would notice. In addition there are so many obsolete and forgotten programs that continued to be funded that I'd wager if a cracker jack CPA was hired just to route them out s/he would have a lifetime job and probably reduce this nations expenses by 25% a year.
Congress is dealing with other peoples money so they could care less. Also they live in a self contained world and have no idea of the real problems everyday Americans face. The political class is today's aristocracy and when it comes to taxpayers, "let them eat cake"
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