This week's "Fiscal Fitness" column from Roll Call was inspired by my Beatiful and Talented Wife's (The BTW) enjoyment of the ABC hit, Dancing with the Stars.  And, yes, in case you're wondering, we have indeed started to take ballroom dancing lessons.

Partners Have Been Chosen, So Let the Budget Dancing Begin

November 18, 2008
By Stan Collender
Roll Call Contributing Writer

Here's my "Fiscal Fitness" column from this week's Roll Call.

Celebrate Now Because Tough Budget Times Are Fast Approaching

Political conventions are usually fun times for the party faithful. Everything, including your wildest political dreams, seems to be likely rather than just possible. The opposition appears to be far less formidable than it appeared to be just a few days earlier. There’s nothing anyone can say that makes you think it’s not your destiny to win. Even your food tastes better.

 And you don’t have to think about actually doing anything. Not only does governing appear to be, at best, months away, but in the immediate afterglow of a convention, it’s hard not to completely believe in your candidates’ and party’s ability to deal with whatever lies ahead. Your only thought: Bring it on.

A story yesterday on the local Washington, D.C. all-news radio station indicated that the Pentagon has been running simulations -- war games -- on what a U.S. war with Iran would look like. 

But according to this excellent article by Gordon Adams, the real war the Pentagon is planning for right now is the 2010 military budget.

Adams, who has long been considered one of the best military budget analysts around, makes a number of key points.

First, while all civilian agencies have been told not to prepare a real budget for next year, the Pentagon (along with Homeland Security, State, and the Agency for international Development) is being allowed (or is it can't be stopped?) to come up with a formal 2010 spending plan that includes policy choices for the coming year.  The strategy is to make it difficult for the next president to come up with a budget that spends less because he will look like he's underfunding the military.