Budget Wars : Debt And Sequestration

Overspending is a pertinent problem facing the lawmakers in Congress. In 2012 discretionary spending reached $1.3 trillion and mandatory spending $2 trillion, while only bringing in $2.5 trillion in revenue. Since the turn of the century back in 2000, non-mandatory spending by the government has topped out a whopping $16.1 trillion just in the past 13 years (Boccia, Frasser & Goff 2013). This persistent overspending on programs and services that are not necessary to the functionality of the country is what is causing the deficit to rise year after year. To remedy this issue the government must either increase the revenue it brings in through taxes and trade or reduce the amount of money it spend or perhaps even both. In 2012 thirty-one cents of every dollar that Washington spent was borrowed (Boccia, Frasser & Goff 2013). Most of which went to large programs such as Social Security and Medicare and if these large, growing programs, or just the budget in general, do not undergo financial reform it could spell disaster for the economy and fiscal state of the nation.

“The federal budget is the yearly plan for how the US government will spend the money it takes from taxes and borrowing.” After thoroughly analyzing the federal budget from 2012, it is unquestionably evident that a majority of the money is being put into a few major categories, leaving room for the rest of the smaller categories to be financially neglected. Is this fair? It seems that the money could be more fairly distributed, and that there is room for cuts in some of the larger categories, to improve the littler ones. In each of the three budget clusters, the US Government should make adjustments in the way it is distributing money; changes involving the big five, the middle

It's 19 percent of what we spend every year.( Doc C) Enough on that though we can also cut costs on other things too like Social services because we are handing money to people. I don't see how that does anything for the country, we should bring back the CCC and make more jobs. That way America gets invested into and we stop handing out money. If they need money they can help work for it not be handed tax money. We also need to take some of the cut money from the Big 5 and put more into FBI because they can stop terrorists before they strike. That is currently the biggest threat against the United

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020. N.p., 2010. Web. 18 Jan. 2014. .

Deficit spending is often applied in a political context. However, it can be applied in

In response to a rapidly increasing national debt, President Barack Obama signed into law in August of 2011 the Budget Control Act (BCA) which mandated $1.2 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration, over a 10-year period (Matthews, 2013). The BCA of 2011 was intended to serve as motivation for the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to come up with a deal for achieving equivalent spending cuts and avoid a mandatory sequestration (Matthews, 2013). The committee

Answer: If there is a difference in the spending of government and the in income will lead to the deficits. More over deficits occurs when the amount of government total budget exceeds its total receipt for a fiscal year was said by US senate budget committee. From the US debit clock, largest budget items list are medical, social security, defense/war, income security, net interest on debt, federal pensions. As we can see that the largest budget items every item has its own importance for Medicare the budget is $949 billions, social security is $872 billions, defense is $591 billion, income security is $310 billions, net interest on debt is $245 billion, and federal pensions is $253 billion. A cut back in the spending of the government is not an easy task because which lead to so many issues. Every items has got his own importance consider defense which is a national importance, medical which is health importance, likewise every items has got their own importance. I would recommend cut back on income security in which the budget is allotted to maintain forester care, earned income credit, unemployment compensation, nutrition assistance, family support, making work pay this is meant for the citizens of the social welfare.

The federal budget deficit is a much discussed and little understood subject in American politics. The current recession has dramatically decreased tax revenues, driving the United States federal government to increase spending in an attempt to stabilize the economy. As a result the current federal deficit is at over $1.3 trillion dollars. This is approximately $47,754 per U.S. citizen or $137,552 per U. S. taxpayer (U.S. Debt Clock: Real Time, 2012).

“To budget is to fight over money and the things money buys” (Document A). The federal budget is adjusted every year and has to follow certain criteria set forward by the Preamble to the Constitution. The Preamble sets five goals that the budget must fulfill, these goals are: to establish justice, to insure domestic tranquility, to provide for the common defence, to promote the general welfare, and to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our prosperity. Furthermore, it is difficult to decide what clusters of the federal budget to allocate money to in order to meet the five goals of the Preamble which are “The Big Five”, “The Middle Five”, and “The Little Guys.” In each of the three budget clusters,

A couple of large concerns always arise when discussing politics: the state of the Union, what the president is currently doing, and a few other topics. No topic, however, is as talked about in major concern than the federal budget. As tax payers, the American people always wishes to know where their tax dollars are going. The problem is that very few people actually know who sets the federal budget, and how much power this branch of government really has.

Any person struggling through difficult times will seek out other means of financial support including borrowing money that may be harder to pay back in the future. The United States will often follow a similar path and spend more money than it earns. Deficit spending in the United States comes with some advantages, disadvantages, and strong criticism. Some feel deficit spending is good for getting the economy back in motion while others contend it does nothing for the economy. The effects of deficit spending are carefully examined to determine if the United States is improving or degrading the future of the economy.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down and that will help lower the defense spending by almost $1 trillion over the next decade. The congress is realizing that they need to do some restructuring and have already begun rearranging the military budget in response to austerity. Congress conjured up a $630 billion defense appropriations bill that made plans to reduce civilian and contractor personnel by 5 percent over the next five years and in return ramp up advanced weapons programs, including drones, bombers and missiles says The Washington Post. The American Conservative

No one decides on the total amount the federal government will spend. Instead, legislative bills that determine the total amount of spending are divided up among fifteen separate committees in the Senate and seventeen committees in the House of Representatives. The Appropriations Committee has jurisdiction over non-entitlement programs (spending varies year to year based upon spending authorized by Congress), which covers one-third of total federal spending. The remaining two-thirds is made up of entitlement programs (spending authorized by permanent laws), which are handled by other standing committees. The agricultural committees have authority over farm price supports, food stamps, and other rural programs. The tax-writing committees in the House and Senate are responsible for Social Security and Medicare. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has jurisdiction over Medicaid.

The third category, spending and interest, accounts for the littlest of the three categories. In lament terms, Social security, military and healthcare account for the majority of our budget. This is no surprise because Social Security and healthcare are both mandatory spending (services our programs we rely on) and the military is discretionary spending (services or programs we rely on), and as stated above, this accounts for the majority of our spending, thus our debt. We rely on these services on a daily basis, and the baby boomers continue to age, the cost spends on social security and Medicare will continue to grow. The same goes for healthcare. As healthcare continues to be costly, the amount spent on Medicaid and insurance providers will continue to grow as well. After reading and understanding where the money is spent, when I took the Concord Coalition’s Federal Budget Challenge, I had a better realization of how little things can improve the deficit in big ways.

For as long as Americans can remember there has always been a federal deficit. In fact, the only time in American history when there was no federal debt was under president Andrew Jackson, and it only lasted a single year(Wall Street Journal). The federal government never managed to pay off the debt again, although some administrations, like Coolidge’s and Clinton’s, have managed to run brief surpluses(Wall Street Journal). Yet today there seems to be no limit on the debt and deficit spending, and a key question has been pressed into the forefront of politics and fiscal policy, “is