President Obama unveils his 2015 budget request today. For the first time in recent memory, Congress completed its topline version of an upcoming budget on time. Still, the process is far from fixed.

We explore this topic in our special series, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process. Dan Chenok is executive director of the IBM Center for the Business of Government. He was a long-time staff member of the Office of Management and Budget. Chenok says the budget process can work well for long-term, predictable programs.

Read Chenok’s column.

It’s time for Congress to start making tough budget, spending and tax choices. Otherwise, says David Walker, the nation’s structural debts will keep spinning out of control. Walker is former U.S. comptroller general. Now he’s chairman of the Government Transformation Initiative.

As part of our special series, Now or Never: Ideas to Save the Failing Budget Process, Walker says biennial budgets might help Congress focus on the oversight and authorization processes.

Read Walker’s column.

Can we guard our privacy in a big data world? President Barack Obama has told his advisers to review government and commercial practices on data collection. The White House and MIT held a conference yesterday in Cambridge. It looked at some of the ethical problems of data mining. The Hill’s Julian Hattem writes about technology.