As the House and Senate budget committees begin the usual process of putting together a federal budget for the coming fiscal year, one of the big unanswered questions is how much they will be swayed by a radical new theory of what the federal budget really is.

Most of us understand that governments spend taxpayer dollars. The “public money” is ours. In theory, this gives our representatives a fiduciary responsibility to spend it wisely on our behalf. When they borrow money, their fiduciary responsibility is to younger taxpayers and future generations who will repay those debts.