Beginning of Essay
This year President Clinton will submit his proposed legislation for the Federal Budget to Congress. The fact that we have divided government (ex., Democratic President, Republican majority in Congress) means the majority of that legislation won't make it through ....

Middle of Essay
.... year. How hard can it be to balance the budget I thought? After doing the exercised I realized the title of the simulation exercise, "The FY 1997 Budget: An Exercise in Hard Choices," could not have been more appropriate. It is possible though to balance the Federal Budget, provided you follow 3 simple rules. First you must decide what you feel is important, then cut without consciousness, and if that doesn't work, alter your baseline. Important Choices When deciding on what I thought was important to protect in the budget, I felt like a politician myself. I protected my own self interests. First up was Defense. The fact that I am in the ....