The Market Solution

This Post by Stumbling and Mumbling started me thinking about the exact nature of Spending, especially Government funding and expenditure. My Conclusion simply states that Government overspending results from the unification marketing of Government programs and the raising of Government revenues. Persistent Spending desires retain their corrosive power because they are obscured within the Budgetary formulation. A separation in the Process may be mandatory to effect fiscal stability.

I thought of varied forms of Separation, the leader being the creation of a all-powerful Budgetary Committee, which could only be overruled by Acceptance of President and Supreme Court. This had two factors wrong with the methodology: Presidents and Courts possess a worse Record on fiscal Conservatism than even legislators, and two, any degree of developed Expertise would not forestall the power and impact of Special Interests manipulation. There did not seem to be any Means to impel fiscal responsibility among elected officialdom.

I chanced upon the stray Thought of a Market solution. This was like a dim memory with no shine to it, barely spotted by the acquiring Mind. The first element of the Process would limit legislative activity to determination of the Budget size, and determination of How it would be funded. This determination would be limited to the first Three Days of every legislative month. This Period could be made effective by Constitutional mandate prohibiting any new Government Spending without in-place allocation of Budgetary funds; legislators would spend the rest of the month convincing themselves that some sound Budget had to be implemented in order for them to derive the political clout of Program funding. This system would require a mutual willingness to work with each other, or lose their ability to gain political support.

The second element is to create a Market floor in the halls of Congress. Each Congressman and Senator would be granted the Dollar amount of Revenue expected from his District under the current Budgetary constraints, consisting of both the actual Tax revenues collected from his District, plus the Dollar evaluation of Cost to his District to repay any Federal Debt incurred by the Process. No Congressman or Senator could bid more Dollars per monthly session than have been allocated on the totality of programs he would underwrite, as recorded by the Congressional staff. The Process would set the relative level of political clout any Member could exert, and structure that Clout in a manner that would inhibit excessive Spending; the Whole of the Process itself constrained by constitutional prohibition of any expenditure of funds until such time that the measure has been fully funded. How serious is your belief in Markets? lgl