Like many of you, I'm more than a little concerned about these politicians spending like drunken sailors. In my line of work, I deal regularly with major weapon system acquisition program managers. They manage programs starting at a billion bucks and going up to many tens of billions over the life of the acquisition program. Setting aside my angst over buying aircraft whose costs are measured in the tens--if not hundreds--of millions, I observe that every one of these PMs operates in deathly fear of something called the Anti-Deficiency Act. Read about it here:
http://www.gao.gov/ada/antideficiency.htm What the Act means is that these PMs could actually
Go To Jail if they spend ("obligate") money they haven't been given by Congress. Works pretty well. The occasional malfeasant is prosecuted and a few even do Go To Jail.
Why wouldn't this concept work for the whole federal budget each year? After a suitable transition period of a few years, the Congress would not be allowed to appropriate or authorize one penny more than is in the bank i.e., taxes taken in last year, under penalty of Going To Jail. It might be a painful transision, but it would sure as hell get spending under control. What would it take?
Your thoughts?
TC
