The President's Budget for 2001: Setting Priorities amid Depleted Choices

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This volume is the first of "The Annual Budget Analysis Series," PIDS' newest publication series that aims to inform the public of the nation's fiscal health for the year by analyzing the President's budget. As the title implies, the analysis of this year's 2001 President's budget underscores the tight financial rein that characterizes the nation's fiscal position for the year, and thus, the depleted choices the government faces in setting its priorities. The author shows how limited the choices have become--in terms of resource allocation. In doing so, she highlights what the tradeoffs are in terms of economic growth and social welfare. Meanwhile, the accompanying special paper tackles the subject of regional allocation and determination. It provides a brief discussion of the evolution of policies and practices in regional budgeting during the last 30 years. The paper also analyzes trends in regional allocation of economic and social government agencies and evaluates the responsiveness of their budgets to regional economic and social conditions taking note of the impact of the use and nonuse of allocation criteria. Finally, the paper lays out policy recommendations to improve regional budgeting exercises and evaluation.