For example, Presidents are always promising to balance the budget. This is hard to do because a balance budget means that revenues equal the amount of expenditures. In an effort to keep the President's promises, The Office of Management and Budgets, through Congress and Appropriation Committees decide which agencies will get what. In the article Rubin tries to simplify the budget process by using an analogy of an individual's shopping excursion to the grocery store to show the various choices and options involved in the budget process. Individual, business, and public budgets are similar in that they all allocate scare resources and choices are made.
Budgets require balance and decision-making processes.
In order for a budget to balance some times borrowing is required. Placing the concept of a complex government budget in the structure of a common shopping trip might make it easier to understand but government budgets are not that simple. In government the process of balancing budgets is far more complex. Budgeting can be a life or death process for many agencies and since resources are limited, choices made to finance one agency often result in neglecting or even abolishing others. In the article, Rubin states that public budgets have several differing characteristics from individual and business budgets.