Rep. Steve Womack on Fixing the Broken US Budget Process

The Broken Budget Process

• 🎯 Steve Womack identifies the core issue not as a broken appropriations process, but a fundamentally broken budget process.
• 💡 He references a 2018 joint select committee on budget process reform, which he co-chaired, that aimed to find solutions.

Obstacles to Reform

• ⚠️ A key obstacle was the lack of Democratic support for the committee's proposals, with four Democrats voting 'present' instead of 'yes' or 'no'.
• 🧩 Had three more Democrats supported the proposals, it could have led to expedited procedures and potentially a reformed budget process.

Proposed Solutions

• 🚀 Womack advocates for returning to the ideas developed by the 2018 committee, emphasizing a biennial budget as a starting point.
• 📊 Other proposed reforms included annual appropriations, and using a debt-to-GDP ratio as a metric to control spending.
• 📈 Implementing these changes could help restore credibility to the budget and appropriations committees.