Congress spends a good chunk of its year on Capitol Hill slogging through the 9-month process of creating and passing a budget. The president kicks off the marathon with a budget proposal in early February and - on the rarest of years - a final budget is passed by October 1 when the fiscal year begins (more often, the process gets dragged out to December - or Congress gives up on the effort entirely).

For 2009's budget, hill watchers are already predicting that we won't see a budget until next January, when the Democratic leadership in Congress hopes to have a president that will sign off on its spending ideas. Their ability to wait until '09 means they have just about zero incentive to negotiate with President Bush to compromise on budget priorities. For that reason, this year citizenJoe doesn't even bother parsing out the president's proposed budget (but you can read up on the dailies' reporting).

The House and Senate passed their first budget drafts - the "budget resolution" - in March. They're looking to okay a final resolution in June. The budget resolution is used as a blue print for the budget committees who write up the details of final spending bills.

Congress' budget resolution

The Senate's version of the budget resolution would (WP):

• cost about $18 billion more than the president's proposed budget;
• start with a $350 billion deficit in '09, but work down to a surplus in '13 - but at the same time the budget assumes that the Bush tax cuts would end in '10 (which is very unlikely) and that we'd only spend $70 billion more on the Iraq war (a snowball's chance)
• add an extra $35 billion for a second stimulus plan, extending unemployment benefits and expanding food stamps
• add $13 billion in tax cuts and $3 billion in funding for alternative energy
• add $13 billion in education tax cuts - and $4 billion on education spending
• add $50 billion for the State Children's Health Insurance Program
• nix the Alternative Minimum Tax for middle income families for one year (without any offsets to make up the $70 billion cost)
• lines up with the president's request for defense spending

The House version's is similar to the Senate's, though it's $4 billion more expensive, doesn't include a $35 billion stimulus package and - although it also includes getting rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax and extending middle class tax cuts - it would pay for them by raising funds through the budget "reconciliation" process. (WP)

The New York Times reports that a final budget resolution - that could be voted on the week of May 19 - would be about $20 over the president's request and would include $7 billion for highway and infrastruction projects to boost the economy as well as the continuation of middle class tax cuts and middle class protection from the Alternate Minimum Tax. What it doesn't include are Medicare cost savings as suggested by the president - or a clear way for how it will pay for itself. (NYT)

Updated June 2, 2008