In government, budgeting is never easy. After all, the budget is the most
political of documents. If, as the political scientist Harold D. Lasswell once
said, politics is “who gets what, when, how,” the budget answers that question.
By crafting a budget, public officials decide who pays what taxes and
who receives what benefits. The publics largesse to children, the elderly, the
poor, the middle class, and others is shaped by the budgets that support cities,
states, and the federal government.