Government Budget

Budgeting is perhaps the most essential process involved in the United States government. While this process seems to exist only in the background, it is, in reality, what allows all other processes of government to function as they do. In order to satisfy the most necessities of modern society, changes must be made to each of the three major categories of the budget: the big five, the middle five, and the little guys.

“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

The main difference between the federal budget and the state and local budgets is the issue of a monetary deficit, in which expenditures in the budget exceeds revenues that were estimated. State and local governments are required to balance their budgets. The federal government is allowed to borrow money to meet its obligations and have a deficit. The federal government collects the most tax revenue, but state and local governments have a greater range of revenue options for funding their budgets. The federal government relies mainly on income taxes, capital gains and Social Security taxes. State and local governments collect sales taxes, taxes on fuel, property taxes and fees from special licenses and permits. Also, many state and local

An indirect tax is a tax included in the price of the product, whereas a direct tax is a tax that is added to the price of a product. Therefore, with direct taxes the customer is aware they are paying extra. Prior to the Stamp Act of 1765, there were only indirect taxes imposed on the colonists. The Sugar Act of 1764, for example, was an act that increased taxes on non-British goods that were shipped to the 13 colonies. The Sugar Tax was seen as a burden to the colonists, but there was little opposition to it for several reasons.

On October 19, 2017, the Senate approved a budget that would aid Republican efforts to create tax cuts in a vote of 51-49. In essence, this budget would expand the federal deficit by 1.5 trillion dollars over a span of 10 years. According to Republicans, the intent of these tax cuts is to create more jobs as well as providing more income to Americans as a whole. However, many Democrats are starkly opposed to this budget because of how it will increase the federal deficit as well as reducing the potency of federal revenue provided by taxes. With the budget being approved by the Senate, it is now up to the House to adopt its version of the budget to officially make it into law.

There are some differences and similarity between the State and Federal budget. The Federal budget is bigger than the State budget. The federal government have the sovereign bank. The Federal government have the ability to print additional money when the need arises. The federal budget needs not balance revenues and expenditures for each fiscal year. At the subnational level, appropriations must not exceed revenues in the State budget. This creates restriction which is mandated for almost all the state and local finances. “This imposes a discipline at state and local government which the federal government may chronically evade. States cope by setting aside reserves in good years to hopefully cover deficits in bad revenue years” (n.d., 2012).

While the states fall short to fulfill their budgetary needs for safety, infrastructure, and education short comes, the prison population has increased each year and its annual budgets. However, in the television show on CNN discussing the failure of our prison system, “In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons, versus $5.7 billion on higher education.” (Zakaria , 2012)

Although the budgets and each level of government are similar, they each have their differences in how they are adopted. The biggest difference between federal and state budgets is the fact that the federal budget can have a deficit in order to meet obligations, whereas state governments are required to have a balanced budget. If there were limitations put on the federal government then the U.S. government would not be able to provide for national emergencies. The federal government has the ability to print money in times of constricted fiscal situations, whereas state governments cannot. The federal government’s budget provides for a large amount of military spending to fund the salaries of military personnel, buy new equipment for the military, and provide funding for military installations both within and outside of the United States. State governments’ are limited to what they provide in their defense budgets to only providing funds for the National Guard of the state. Another difference between federal and state budgets is the variety of revenue options. According to Florida International University, the federal government is the biggest collector of the majority of tax revenue. However, state and local governments have a larger range of

According to Shultz (2002), individuals and businesses fund the Federal Government through personal income and payroll taxes. With the unemployment rate at 8.1% as of January 1st, 2014 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014), created an overall shortage in both individual and business taxes.

The U.S. Government receives most of its tax revenues from the labor of its people and

The federal budget deficit it is an excess government spending on state revenues. And public debt is an aggregate amount of government debt, which is composed of outstanding loans and unpaid interest thereon. U.S. federal expenditures is approximately around 3.5-4 trillion dollars, which includes: defense – $700b, social security – $700b, Medicare and Medicaid – $450b, Interest – $200b, other assistance such as food stamps, unemployment, housing, EITC - $180b, and other non-defense - $600b.

assisting the president with production of budget. The OMB is responsible for making sure agencies, policies, and procedures are in compliance with the president’s policies. It is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

Taxes are the dollars that we pay to government to supply the services that are not or can not be provided through the free enterprise system. Taxes have been around since the beginning of organized societies. They come in various forms. Most common are income taxes both federal and local government. These taxes are assessed on the amount of income a person earns. Other taxes come in the form of user taxes; these taxes are imposed on the people that are using the goods being taxed, such as gas tax, alcohol tax, sales tax, and luxury taxes. Property taxes make up the major revenues for local and city governments. Furthering the burden of taxation are taxes that are attached to such bills as utility

Historically, incrementalism has characterized public budgeting because at its core, budgeting has evolved: increased and decreased through gradual stages within the realm of the political arena. The need for this one step at a time type of response, found within incremental budgeting, would have likely been caused by the known fact that prior to the 1900’s public welfare programs, federal, states, and even city spending did not exist in the way in which is more than obviously observable in today’s society simply because America did not employ an actual budgetary system. Therefore, as with any unchartered territory, it was approached in stages, with caution, a little at a time in response to the growing needs of the public. Aaron Wildavsky made this case in his book “The politics of the budgetary process,” when he pointed out “budgeting is incremental, not comprehensive. The beginning of wisdom about an agency budget is that it is almost never actively reviewed as a whole every year in the sense of reconsidering the value of all existing programs as compared to all alternatives. Instead, it is based on last year’s budget with special attention given to a narrow range of increases or decreases.” (Wildavsky 1964, p. 15)

This project seeks to bring out the budgeting and budgetary control practices of UT financial institution, Koforidua, and how they can make sure their budgeting practices are done in such a way as to incur minimal or less cost for the organization