 Let's pretend Congress is having trouble passing a budget. I know, it's crazy, but play along. To get past that, there's a process called reconciliation. This is a rule where the majority can instruct the different committees to come up with bills that meet specific spending and tax targets. If they don't come up with something, the Budget Committee chair can amend their bills for them. This is key because once the package of bills comes up for a vote, it can't be amended and can win a majority vote without having to worry about a filibuster in the Senate. If both houses of Congress pass a reconciliation package, it goes to the President and can still be vetoed. Sounds easier, doesn't it? This of course raises a question. Why isn't everything passed this way? To keep this process from being abused, you're only allowed to use reconciliation for spending bills. Under the Byrd rule in the Senate, any senator can object to any item in reconciliation package that isn't directly about spending or taxes, and the item is taken out unless 60 senators vote to keep it in. The Senate makes it hard to do things and this removes the temptation to try and get around those rules. You might remember the debt ceiling coming up a lot in the news back in 2011. What the heck is that? Is that when you stack the tax money super high? Is it limbo dancing for politicians? Aside from the budget every year, Congress also has to occasionally authorize the government borrowing more money. So if the budget calls for spending $100 billion and a $1 billion deficit, the government can only borrow that $1 billion if Congress graces the debt ceiling. The budget is usually late because it takes so much work to get everyone to agree and you need 60 votes to get through the Senate without reconciliation. So to keep the government from shutting down, there's a procedure called a continuing resolution. This is where the agencies get the same amount of money as they did in a previous budget, so you get three months of funding, say, for your budget back from 2010. The problem is that usually the agencies have hired more people or have a bigger budget in some other way, so this is the same as taking a budget cut. Congress might pass several of these in a row if they can't agree. So Congress passed a budget. Now what? How was the money actually spent? There are two kinds of federal spending. Mandatory, which is set up by formulas in a particular law, and discretionary, which means the budget can change it every year. Mandatory is a funny word, since Congress can change those laws whenever it wants to. Mandatory includes, but is not limited to, food stamps, federal civilian and military retirement benefits, veterans disability benefits, unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Discretionary spending is only one-third of the budget. It all adds up, obviously, but this process is how they get it done. And there you have it.