ABSTRACT
Budget reformers on both sides of the Atlantic have often been criticised for ignoring or underestimating the ‘political’ element in expenditure decisions. In consequence, once a particular spending proposal or the total package of annual estimates have been settled within government their approval is all but automatic, assuming the government has an overall majority. As the executive's power to control the budget is fundamentally different in the two countries so too is the relative power of the Treasury and the OMB within the government machine. The participants in all parts of the process used tactics or ‘aids to calculation’ to help them simplify the process and avoid conflict. The Treasury has more power than the US Office of Management and Budget and was in a much stronger position to launch a new expenditure control system. Expenditure had been edged forward by a combination of tactics and strategies countered as best they could by Treasury and the Bureau of the Budget.
