Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/227

 merits, fought over and either killed or passed. Nothing could be more desirable if at each stage, the members have before them a statement of the actual finances of the state. The budget bill—meaning one inclusive bill containing all appropriations—belongs in a responsible cabinet government and not in a government such as ours. A cabinet government may present its estimates and recommended expenditures and permit the legislative body to fight over them within limits but the administration as a result of its acceptance or rejection, stands or falls, consequently the party member is whipped into line and supports those who make the estimate, unless the protest from public opinion is so great that he dare not do so. If he does not stand by those estimates his party goes out of power and a new administration comes in to make a more acceptable and popular budget. That American states have adopted the budget bill stands as a monument to the stupidity of political economists who have recommended it to American legislatures in the past.

Wisconsin fortunately never has adopted another plan which has usually accompanied the budget idea as furthered by political economists and accountants and which has no precedent on the face of the earth—that is, the idea that appropriations should be made for all state departments merely for a two year period. The inefficiency, corruption and log-rolling which have come