6.0 6.0 10 5 That some choices are being made without consideration of their legal or unintended consequences. It was a lot harder than I thought! Something interesting that I learned was that with every decision I made, there was always a good argument against it. Most surprising to me is how much we are spending on education - yet we are well below average. That balancing the budget is a lot harder than it looks! These choices are tough. Do you disadvantage one group over another? Do you place the burden on those who have more? Do you stifle business by increasing taxes? These are not easy questions to answer. I've been taking these challenges for the past several years, and it has gotten very, very difficult to close the budget gap entirely. I was left with a $6 billion deficit this year, and I'm usually able to generate surpluses with my choices. Learning about the budget deficit and how difficult it is for our administrators to do the balancing act between whom to fund and which program not to. I emphasize with my Senators instead of being critical of their decision making process. I learned a great deal by reading the arguments "for" and "against" each of the proposed changes to the budget. I need to keep learning more about the budget. In many cases, I'm not sure that I made the right decision. I'm definitely going to tell others about this, and I may try it again. Our politicians must continually balance the budget to insure that our children and we have a future in California. I believe that there is much wasteful spending in the CA state budget, and I want to see how the money is spent. I am using this simulation activity with my undergraduate students in a course on politics and ethics. It is a valuable experiential learning tool for my students. That making budgetary decisions are very difficult and every decision has an impact whether it be positive or negative. The trade offs in balancing the budget are difficult. A more forward looking budget process that does a better job of anticipating the business cycle, with reserves for downward fluctuations in revenues, seems in order.