Budget Policy: Budgetary Treatment of Investment Programs.
Abstract
This report discusses the importance of federal investment-oriented programs and how these can best be considered when making budgetary decisions. The nation's long-term economic future depends in large part upon budget and investment decisions made today. Current trends are not encouraging, however, as federal budget deficits have absorbed increasing proportions of national saving that might have financed productive economic investment. These deficits, in turn, have placed growing fiscal pressure on discretionary federal spending programs, including those with longer term investment-type benefits for economic growth. The deficit has served to reinforce the preoccupation of the current budget process with short-term results and immediate cash consequences of programs for the budget, again to the detriment of those investment programs carrying longer term economic benefits. Changes are needed in our budget process to foster consideration of the longer term impacts of both our overall fiscal policy decisions as well as the choices we make among programs. The author describes how the process might be changed to provide a framework for considering the investment implications of federal programs. (KAR) P. 2
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 23, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA297332
Entities
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office