Lanterna Rally

Author: United States. General Accounting Office

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13:

Each year, the President is required by law to submit a budget to Congress. In effect, the President's budget analyzes and compiles separate presentations for hundreds of budget accounts, covering all fiscal activities of the federal government, including such "off-budget" accounts as the Social Security Trust Funds and the Postal Service Fund. The budget comprises a wealth of information in a daunting array of schedules, tables, graphs, and narrative summaries. The comprehensiveness of the President's budget is its main strength, but it also accounts for its most obvious weaknesses--its sheer size and complexity. For example, for fiscal year 1998, the President's budget spans six volumes and more than 2,400 pages. This compendium provides users with a convenient way to sort through the fiscal structure of the federal government and to determine the level of budgetary resources--used, estimates, or requested by fiscal year--for individual accounts.