Politics & Power Quote by Michael Enzi

A “billion-page paper” is the kind of exaggeration that isn’t meant to be believed so much as felt: budget documents as dead weight, a mountain of paper standing in for Washington’s habit of performing seriousness without delivering clarity. Michael Enzi’s line works because it turns a procedural fact into a character indictment. By framing the president’s budget as an imaginary shopping list - “how he would spend the money if he were spending the money” - Enzi casts the White House not as a governing engine but as a storyteller pitching a fantasy.

The subtext is separation of powers as a weapon. Enzi is reminding listeners that Congress writes the checks, and he’s doing it in a way that subtly demotes the president from decision-maker to memo-writer. The repetition (“spend the money… spend the money… doesn’t spend $1”) is deliberate: a drumbeat designed to make the president’s role sound almost comically irrelevant. It’s less a civics lesson than a bid to reclaim authorship, to say: the real action is on Capitol Hill.

Context matters because modern budgets are political documents as much as fiscal ones. Presidents release them to signal priorities, set negotiating anchors, and force opponents to react. Enzi’s intent is to puncture that agenda-setting power by calling it theater. The jab also flatters the audience’s impatience with bureaucracy: if you’re tired of gridlock, here’s a culprit - not just “Washington,” but a president allegedly dressing up aspiration as authority.