Stan Collender Quotes on Budgeting (3 Quotes)

The president's budget is not the agenda-setting development or event that it used to be. They use it to make a political statement. It should in no way be taken as what they would actually do or what they actually want or what they're ultimately going to accept.

There is no consensus at all about what the budget debate is supposed to accomplish.

The numbers themselves are far less important than how much they changed the politics of the budget debate. In a classic only-Nixon-can-go-to-China situation, Reagan made deficits acceptable.