Lewis emphasized the importance of incremental or marginal analysis in comparison of budget values, although he realistically recognized the difficulties of applying formal marginal analysis to more practical problems. This article suggests that formal economic analysis need not be involved in economic rationalization of public budgets. Rationality and economic efficiency might be enhanced through organization and procedure in the budget process itself, rather than through adoption of esoteric and formal economic analysis. Economists historically have been interested in spending and revenue activities of governments. Since Adam Smith's day, they have sought answers to the philosophical question of the proper role of government while also working on the more mundane problem of defining what constitutes a "good" tax. But economists, with notable modern exceptions,