Budget Deficit and Surplus

The last chapter in the Wildavsky book I feel brings us to the current state of the economy. The book talks about how in the late 90's and prior to 9/11 how the country was steaming full speed ahead with surpluses at the end of each year. However and as we have mentioned many times in this blog and in our classroom discussions 9/11 changed all that. With the surprise attack and months which have now turned into years of war we have gotten deeper in debt. The book I believe only talks through 2002 so it leaves out the economic downturn of the past 2-3 years. Here we have seen the loss of millions of jobs, foreclosed homes, and the ups and downs on wall street.
In the past year we have seen actions in Congress to prop up the economy through Bailouts, and the extension of unemployment benefits. All of this aid related directly to the budget process and how much money we are spending. Our deficit is the highest it has ever been and with the cloudy forecast looming it doesn't look as if it will get better anytime soon.
I find it interesting that we get as much done as we do. The budget process as Wildavsky states is extremely complex and is all about process and institutions. Anytime a budget is introduced it has to make its way through committees and votes and re-writes and to the President/Governor's desk.
I think I will walk away from this class knowing that our system isn't perfect but after a while we eventually make progress. As far as the deficit and surplus spending, I think we could do alot better reigning control of how we spend our money and what we could do with the surpluses if we ever get to that point again.