How effective is the current federal budget process? The federal budget process should be reformed / Jim Bates ; A PAYGO statute is an effective budgetary policy / Alice M. Rivlin ; A PAYGO statute is bad budgetary policy / Brian M. Riedl ; The supplemental appropriations process is currently being abused / Veronique de Rugy ; Earmarks are bad budgetary policy / Mike Pence ; Earmarks are effective budgetary policy / Robert Shrum -- How do federal budget deficits affect the nation's economy? Federal budget deficits are harmful to the nation's economy / Concord Coalition ; Budget deficits are not as harmful to the economy as many claim / Alan Reynolds ; The federal budget deficit should not be the central focus of U.S. economic policy / Thomas Palley ; Meeting the nation's needs is more important than balancing the federal budget / Joseph Stiglitz ; The federal budget should both meet the nation's needs and eliminate the deficit / Alice M. Rivlin ; Expanded government spending cannot be maintained / Veronique de Rugy -- How should federal budget revenue be raised? Federal revenue could be boosted by collecting taxes currently owed by citizens / Albert B. Crenshaw ; To bring in enough revenue to afford the American way of life, taxes must be raised / Donna Schaper ; To bring in enough revenue to match spending, taxes should be raised on corporations and the wealthy / Robert L. Borosage and Celinda Lake ; The wealthy already bear too much of the federal tax burden / J.T. Young ; The U.S. needs a new value-added tax to increase budget revenue / Bruce Bartlett ; The U.S. should implement a sin tax to increase budget revenue / Nick Gillespie ; The U.S. should not implement a sin tax / Robert A. Sirico -- How should federal budget money be spent? Federal defense spending should be increased / Valerie Lynn Baldwin ; Federal defense spending should be cut / James Surowiecki ; Too much of the federal budget has gone to the Iraq War / Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier ; Too much of the federal budget is spent on health care / George Krumbhaar ; Too much of the federal budget is spent on entitlements and other social welfare programs / Richard M. Ebeling ; Spending on some entitlement programs is actually decreasing / Aviva Aron-Dine and Robert Greenstein ; Increased spending has not improved education / Tom Bethell.