This failure to steer the budget has been bipartisan.
But the open skepticism of some Republicans was significant, since President Bush is counting on the thin Republican majorities in the House and the Senate to steer his budget through Congress largely intact.
As Finance Minister, he successfully steered a budget through the Assembly and has driven reforms to the domestic rates.
By reducing costly fuel subsidies, he has freed up what economists estimated to be close to $20 billion for spending on infrastructure; he has also managed to steer a revised budget through the parliament thanks to cracks in the opposition coalition that backed Prabowo in the election.
For that matter, I would be happy to see chunks of the DFID budget steered towards the preservation of foreign language services earmarked for closure by the BBC World Service, as some MPs recently suggested.It is also true, as development-sceptics argue, that development assistance is a very blunt instrument.
"Staying on course" makes the point that "it's hard to weather a slowdown without a sound budget to steer by".
Two major cost icebergs Mr. Suozzi must safely steer the county's budget past are the foundering Nassau University Medical Center and the impending contract negotiations with the police unions.
Mr Ciampi should now be able to steer through the 1999 budget, which he drew up under Mr Prodi, and insert the lira into the euro when it is launched in January.
Greenhalgh has perhaps baffled both parties by announcing he is to quit the leadership for the council backbenches in order to help steer a pilot community budget in White City, a deprived area of the borough.
Italy's prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has dismissed the commission's forecast as "implausible", insisting that the budget will steer growth towards 1.5% of GDP over the coming year, compared with the commission's latest forecast of 1.2%, while reducing the deficit.
