It doesn’t have to be like this. Or maybe, given the state of the Irish political system, it does.
Next year the State will, give or take a few cents, spend €55 billion and raise almost as much in taxes.
Yet the current budget “row” all comes down to the just in excess of €1 billion which will be left over.
The figure is essentially the growth dividend which the exchequer is getting as rising incomes, spending and corporate profits push tax revenues higher.
This focus reduces the debate in the run-up to the budget to something close to an absurdity.
Are we going to pay pension and welfare increases from January, or March?
Can we afford to give the average taxpayer €3 a week or €4? How can something be constructed to give a few extra euro to the “squeezed middle”?
We are spending all our time worrying about the one-and-a-bit billion “to spare” and none of it talking about how the €55 billion might be spent more efficiently, or how we might raise taxes in a better way to help pay for it.
Irish politics, as now constructed, has no ability to deliver “reform”.
Any talk that we might stop doing something, or focus resources on one particular area at the expense of another, appears not to be possible.
This means all the new demands have to be met from a relatively small amount of money, inevitably leading to disappointment.
Budget policy has been driven into a cul-de-sac which will make stymie reforms, except in a crisis.
As for raising new funds or taxes, well you can completely forget about that.
The huge fuss over water charges means that no one in the Irish political system is even going to go there, bar calls from some on the left for more tax on the well-off.
Already, the cost to the general exchequer of the Irish Water decision is becoming clear - the State will have to put in €270 million next year to help fund capital spending at Irish Water, compared with €184 million this year.
And by freezing the local property tax and exempting any new homes from the tax until 2019, the Government risks slowly killing off this charge entirely.
You can see how it goes in the pre-budget debate. Talk of cutting inheritance tax for parents who are leaving money and property to children led to calls that this was unfair to childless families.
The same applies in spending. The Irish system is full of so-called universal entitlements - money everyone gets, such as child benefit - yet any suggestion that these be restricted in any way for even the highest earners is resisted.
Looking at the general spending cake to be delivered in the budget, no one group of welfare recipients can be targeted for increases - instead there must be a little for everyone.
This will put pressure on management - in An Garda Síochána, hospitals, schools and so on to deliver better services with small increases in cash.
‘New politics’
The “new politics” also means that not only are Government backbenchers pushing for their interests, but Fianna Fáil and the Independent Alliance must also be kept on board.
It is all about each group claiming “ credit” for some small concession - and everyone hoping the whole thing can hang together for a little bit longer.
And no difficult decisions can be taken which might have people out protesting on the street, or even ringing Liveline.
In the odd world of the “new politics”, we have left-wing parties opposing the residential property tax - a good way to tax wealth, surely - and parties trying to outdo themselves to keep the pensioners of Ireland happy.
We may also see a budget which chips away a bit at the tax base, narrowing it a bit further without any countervailing measures to offset what is being done.
For example, it looks likely that more people will be removed from the USC net and that the lower rates will be cut.
However, one thing to watch out for is whether a plan floated previously to claw back some of this money via an extension to PRSI at lower-income levels is put in place.
Likewise, at higher-income levels, some coherent way is needed to ensure top earners pay their fair share, rather than the hotchpotch of special arrangements and levies which is now in place.
Is everyone earning above €70,000 to gain the same, if the standard USC rate of 5.5 per cent is cut ? Or are the gains to be clawed back from those earning above that level? Or those earning above €100,000?
Tax reform is a dirty word, because reform means someone, somewhere loses out. And the same applies to spending.
But the danger for this Government is that future budgets may not be any easier.
Existing Government financial plans do envisage more leeway in future years. But these were all drawn up before the Brexit vote.
If the UK’s move to Brexit, and the associated volatility, hits growth here - and with sterling above 90p against the euro it may well do so - then the budgetary room for manoeuvre in the years ahead will shrink.
There are already some signs that the economy here is slowing, though it must be said that so far most estimates are still for GDP growth of 3 per cent plus next year.
If these forecasts prove correct and growth remains solid, then the Government may indeed have a bit more leeway in future budgets.
Indications that Ireland will set out to beat minimum requirements to cut the debt to GDP ratio are also welcome.
Ireland has beaten the odds in growing so strongly in the last few years, but there can be no guarantee that the record of the last few years - when budget targets were easily beaten year-after-year - will automatically be maintained.
