In order to balance our budget and reduce the amount of debt the government takes on each year, we must match the level of government revenues with the level of spending.
Once we have a plan in place that reduces spending and increases revenues, a strong annual budget process for the government would help us stay on track.
The economy goes through cyclical movements over time, with periods of growth followed by downturns. To help improve responsiveness to fluctuations in the business cycle, a number of important programs in the federal budget automatically increase or restrain spending depending on economic conditions.