Today the Labour Party Government unveiled its new annual budget beset with handouts and tax increases to (partially) pay for them. But that’s not the important part for someone like me.
It was the tradition of it all that enthralled me, what with the Chancellor of the Exchequer bringing a Red Briefcase — packed with her speech and notes on the budget — to the House of Commons.
What a great tradition. Except the red these days could easily stand for the red ink the nation is creating to keep things going.
The red suitcase, now known as “the Budget Box,” was first used by William Gladstone in 1860. Gladstone actually hand-constructed the first Budget Box.
The unveiling of the budget begins with the Chancellor, who is England’s finance minister, emerging from 11 Downing Street, her official residence, with the briefcase in hand. Today, Chancellor Rachel Reeves proudly posed for the press as she emerged (pictured).
Here in the U.S., it’s unclear if we ever really have a budget. We seem to exist on continuing resolutions, which just keep in place whatever bits and pieces of spending have been enacted previously and are still in force.
Per the Constitution, the president is required to submit a budget for Congress’s review, which then supposedly leads to committees meeting in the House of Representatives to hash out everything.
I’ll spare you the details, but the nation hasn’t had a real consolidated budget in the sense of committees’ approving pieces of the pie in ages. It’s just some kind of a mish-mash that is carried over from the previous year, with new spending added in.
Something like that, anyway.
When it comes to the U.S. government, or any government, don’t look too deeply below the surface if you want to keep your wits about you.
