ABSTRACT
Budgeting lies at the heart of public policy making at all levels of government in the United States. Public budgets meet the test of the popular adage, “Put your money where your mouth is; talk is cheap.” In more scholarly terms, they illustrate programmed resource commitments that lay bare policy priorities and cut through political rhetoric. Budgets disclose the priorities of key institutional actors in the budget-making process and serve as instruments to measure the relative success of those actors in shaping the final budget version enacted into law.
