In his Buzz Column this week, Budget Buffet ($), Stan Collender expresses surprise "that a budget resolution is moving ahead at all, let along so quickly," applauding the seriousness and fiscal discipline with which Congress is pursuing the budget process thus far. Yes, after years of feckless fiscal policy in Washington, "this has the possibility of being a turning point." But in fact incrementalism is the hallmark of the budget resolutions moving through Congress. (The Senate adopted its resolution last Friday; the House is expected to debate its version tomorrow and vote on it Thursday.) Given the sea change one sees in Congress in its willingness to challenge the President's war policy, one might have expected a more concerted effort by Democrats to put their own policy stamp on the FY 2008 budget. For speculation on why this hasn't happened, see this analysis by yours truly and this perspective, from Collender: [I]ncremental change was all that was likely this year and the best that anyone should expect. The narrow margins in the House and Senate, extreme partisanship, and a Congress and White House controlled by different political parties meant from the start that a budget deal of any kind was extremely unlikely. There never was going to be a deal over entitlements and taxes this year. It didn't take a fortune teller to read these budget tea leaves.