I would like to bring back the budget. We have a new and improved Office of the GM, an incoming President who wants greater focus on budgetary issues and a Senate that looks like it needs something to do.
This will be a place for people to lay down ideas on re-instituting the budget. This means both looking at the Constitution and seeing how we can improve the original process, as well as looking at formatting ideas and what things to include.
What is needed right now is two-fold: a) A show of interest from citizens, senators and government officials and b) Explanations from the old-timers on how the budgets used to look, why they didn't work and how we can bring them back in better shape.
My first idea would be to remove the budget from a duty of each new Senate term and place it with the elected President. This would make the budget a less common and time-consuming matter (3 times a year, rather than six) and would make it an interesting way for the President to set the agenda for his or her upcoming term.
Let's get the ball rolling. What are your thoughts? Is there any support for this in the Senate?
You're a great GM, PS, but you certainly have your hands massively full. A thought just came to me: Perhaps this is something we can at least partially delegate to the SoIA in lieu of abolishing the position. It's not that I'm in love with keeping that position open. It just seems the budget is a demanding and decidedly "internal" job, and the SoIA is currently a do-nothing job that otherwise warrants abolition. I assume, PS, you could use some delegation on the budget project.
On a slightly related note, someone recently proposed the bright idea of giving the SoIA some financial powers not unlike the Fed. Maybe do both?
Just thinking out loud here....
