Political Majority and Federal Spending Essay

The structure of our government is complex. With local, state, and federal levels of government, it can be confusing to understand how the government works. Luckily, Morris Fiorina wrote a document about the structure of the government called The Rise of the Washington Establishment. The Washington establishment simply refers to big government workers such as, included but not limited to, house representatives, senators, congressmen, and party leaders. These legislators and bureaucrats are the ones who run the government and establish laws. In his document, Fiorina argued that these people are in office only for personal gains. He strongly focused on congress, in which he believes they act in favor of their reelection. Power, money, and insurance benefits are the main influences that motivate congressmen to hold their position. Governmental representatives are supposed to reflect the values of the people, but they ultimately act in a selfish manor. The Rise of the Washington Establishment analyzes how congressmen act for their own self-interest.

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.

23 Jeffrey Leigh Sedgwick, ‘The Prospects of Restoring the Federal Balance’ (2006) 17 (1) JSTOR Polity <

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

Monetary value has had significant influence in determining the outcome of elections. The input and strategies put forward by different forces determine the organizational scheme and the ability to grab most of the seats. Although money has been linked to corrupt deals in many countries, with leaders amassing power through corrupt and underhand methods, especially in Africa, this is not the case of the same monetary influence witnessed in America. The conventions of the U.S.A raise a lot of money in preparation for campaigns and elections to constitute a good number of representatives. The paper, therefore, looks at the effect of money in the recently concluded elections of the Congress, giving a deeper view of the 113th and 114th Congress election of the two major conventions.

One of the advantages that incumbents enjoy in congressional elections is due to “Pork barrel politics” this term is used when congressmen and senators focus government funds into their home

Throughout the book Congress: The Electoral Connection there is a common theme that the author, David Mayhew, brings to our attention. He argues that the members of Congress have one exclusive goal, to get reelected; because of this goal, it effects their behavior and actions during their time in office. There are four reasons that Mayhew puts an emphasis on the goal of reelection, those being political reality, the lack of focus on parties but rather on individuals, the constant struggle for power and, in his opinion, most importantly it establishes an accountability relationship with an electorate. As the book progresses Mayhew provides an abundance of evidence as to why he believes this is the primary goal of the members of Congress.

This article is about the current Republican presidential candidates and their spending habits in the past. Staying true to their conservative roots, each Republican candidate has guaranteed to cut back on government spending if they are elected. Unfortunately, according to this article, not all presidential candidates have a track record that lines up with their promises to the public. Fox news presents its readers with a graph labeled with the names of all current Republican presidential candidates who were also previous governors and their spending patterns. The chart shows that candidate Jeb Bush cut spending the most, while Mike Huckabee allegedly increased spending the most out of all Republican candidates who were also previous state

The author, David Doherty, in this article, “To Whom Do People Think Representatives Should Respond: Their District or the Country”, attempts to understand whether voters recognize the incentives in a representative democracy and reward legislators for prioritizing district preferences over the nations. In order to answer this question, the author performs two experiments by asking participants to examine legislators who supported or opposed a certain bill. By understanding people’s responses, political scientists are able to evaluate whether the accountability principle is constant with the mechanism built into Congress by the Constitution.

The budget process is the most important aspect of fiscal decision making in Public Administration. Smith and Lynch (2004), argues that “Public budgeting is an activity that many people view from their own perspectives and, thus, they do not comprehend the full complexity of budgeting” (p. 34). Similar to the contextual definition of complexity in budgeting process, a classic example was the State of California’s budget impasse for the year 2010-2011. This essay examines and analyses the concerns that lead to passing a late budget in the State of California. It further goes into details regarding the reasons, resolutions, and consequences faced due to the budget Impasse.

The decentralization of spending authority creates deficit financing. By spreading the spending responsibility among so many committees, Congress has created a commons problems. Numerous claimants are competing for a commonly owned resource. The forces of competition for the resource are leading to over consumption and exhaustion of the resource. From the individual committee perspective the commonly owned resource is federal revenues. The consumers of the resource are the congressional committees. The common resource is over consumed

This article discusses how the power and responsibility of the federal government varies during periods of crisis and anticrisis. During a crisis event such as war, officials are able to push through unpopular policies, like tax hikes, spending cuts, and employee layoffs. Normally these policies would be too politically risky for a politician to attempt but they strengthen the financial health of the government in the long run. The difference during an anticrisis is policy makers are pushed to avoid any unpopular or stressful decisions. Instead they are under pressure to pass major tax cuts and new spending programs that may be popular at the time but in the long run will weaken the financial health of the government.

This paper will attempt to answer the question: Is the federal deficit and government deficits in general a good or a bad thing? While it may be easy to lose sight of how the government chooses to handle its money, it is also important for citizens to be conscious of how their money is being spent, and whether or not the current course that the government is plotted on is either sustainable or the best allocation of resources.

The consequences of federal pork barreling are today's public opinions of Congress. Voters express a sixty percent approval rating of their own personal representatives. However, voters opinion of Congress as a

Another interpretation of the increasing budget deficit rests on the phenomenon of “war of attrition” between conflicting political groups. Sometimes higher number of political parties in a legislative system makes it difficult to reach agreements and hence raises the likelihood of conflict among political groups. For instance, although it would be ideal to stabilize the budget deficit, the conflict among the various political parties may not let them reach a consensus. As a result of the persistence of the deficit, government turns to seignorage as the last resort to restore balance in fiscal budget which eventually causes inflation. Hence Khan and