Currently, Congress is debating our fiscal future, with most of the conversation centered on how much spending needs to be cut out of the budget, an exercise that is already taking place at the state and local level, where balanced budgets are required.

FORBES: Recessionary Differentiations

Around 3-4% of a hospital's budget will depend on the exercise.

ECONOMIST: Health-care reform

On no program does he not want to spend money and his latest budget, presented as an exercise in fiscal restraint, would more than double the accumulated deficit over the coming decade.

FORBES: Democrats And Republicans Together Assault Our Liberty

And it was made worse when President Obama announced last summer that he would exercise his authority under the budget law to exempt military personnel from the cuts.

FORBES: Sequestration Threat To Defense Sector Begins To Recede

The state duma should be strengthened and should again exercise its constitutional right to control budget expenditures.

FORBES: Mikhail Prokhorov and Just Cause's Party Platform - Judicial Reform, a ban on United Russia's "Political Monopoly," and making Russia "the Freest Country in the World"

Under the Line Item Veto Act, Congress had to help the president in his exercise of his veto by highlighting, in the budget bill, tax breaks that benefited fewer than 101 people.

ECONOMIST: The line-item veto

This exercise in mindless cutting is, more than anything, a plea for a serious budget process.

FORBES: The Sequester Is Not Too Big, It Is Too Stupid

Yes, they could exercise reasonable discretion, but if they didn't focus at least half their budget on top-priority drugs, they would be replaced.

FORBES: Reviving Novartis