The Federal Budget For The United States

rom a biblical perspective, a budget is important to keep the economy flowing in an efficient manner. Proverbs 21:5 KJV says “The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.” Diligently planning and constructing a balanced budget is a biblical principle. The issue with the federal budget in regards to a biblical perspective is that the budget is not always balanced, and at times money is spent on activities that are not biblical. A balanced budget is crucial because having large amounts of debt is not a biblical principle. “We can see that debt is figured in scripture in various places as a potential means of God’s judgment against rebellious nations” (Anderson, 2013, p. 5). God does not condone large amounts of debt, such as what the federal budget contains.

“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

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 government needs to take more caution creating the federal budget. Edwards stated that “Consider Canada's experience. In the mid-1990s, the federal government faced a debt crisis caused by overspending, which is similar to America's current situation. But the Canadian government reversed course and slashed spending from 23 percent of GDP in 1993, to 17 percent by 2000, to just 15 percent today. The Canadian economy did not sink into a recession from the cuts as Keynesians would have expected but instead grew strongly during the 1990s and 2000s."

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.

With that being said, one would wonder if all the categories in the Big Five are equally distributed or if the money that is out in one category could be better spent in a different category. One might think that the national debt should be increased. It is essential that the national debt be increased since the country is in deep debt. As stated in Document C, the U.S has more than $10 trillion in debt. Being so deep in debt can disturb our already fragile economy and borrowing additional money can threaten the livelihoods of Americans. One category that could be decreased is Defense. The cartoon in Document F shows President Obama writing the budget, and three figures standing before him, two small ones and one big

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.

There are several divisions of the deficit. First, there is the difference between the debt the government owes the public and the debt it owes itself. The public debt is the amount of money the government borrows from the public, either through taxes or securities. The debt the government owes itself is in the form of special programs, such as Social Security, or spending in specific areas like veterans. There are also two types of government expenses. First, there is discretionary, which the government sets a limit for. Then, there is mandatory, where the government determines who meets the eligibility for benefits.

They created a system with numerous taxes and fees that affect every part of human life, so even when somebody buys a little sandwich, some amount of money also goes to the budget. This system of taxes and fees was created with the early establishment of the country and develops from year to year. Sometimes when the government needs more money to spend, they just create an additional tax that will raise enough money. According to the National Priorities Project (NPP), the federal government raises trillions of dollars in tax revenue each year, and for example, during the 2015 fiscal year, the government earned $3.18 trillion. So, the main sources of American budget are taxes and other fees, but they also differ from each other. According to the National Priorities Project (NPP), the three main types of taxes are, income taxes paid by individuals, payroll taxes paid jointly by workers and employers, and corporate income taxes paid by businesses. Between these three types of taxes, the income taxes play the biggest role (near 50%), so it is clear that national budget is formed by ordinary citizens who pay their taxes. Some of the citizens are not satisfied with such distribution and believes, that corporations and business owners should play the biggest role in taxation, while ordinary citizens should pay lower taxes. Despite this controversy, the modern taxation system was formed many years ago, and nowadays it performs well, so there is no direct reason to change

According to Professor Allen Schick, “In a fundamental sense, the government is what it spends” (Document A). There is a great deal of planning that goes into the federal budget each year, but yet it’s still not enough to satisfy every need. The truth is that however much money or planning that goes into the budget, people will still feel that we are spending too much in some areas and not enough in others. It is the government’s responsibility to put in place a budget that satisfies the needs of the people and follows the preamble to the Constitution. Many people believe that we are not “slicing the pie correctly” and that the budget needs to be looked over and revised. In each of the three budget clusters, the US government should make minor

The first step to creating the federal government budget is the President submits a budget request to Congress. The executive branch gets requests from the federal agencies saying that different things and projects need money or that they don’t need money. So basically they discuss what project is more important. Yet these are all only proposals so they can either be accepted or denied depending on what the people think the country needs.

It is projected In fiscal year 2015, that the federal government will spend around $3.9 trillion. When measured by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) it will make up 21 percent of the U.S. economy. According the U.S. Treasury, resource allocation is categorized in three areas: Mandatory Spending, Discretionary Spending and interest paid on

It is no secret, the federal budget is in a major deficit. The federal government continues to borrow money to finance obligations that include Medicare, Social Security, military defense, federal salaries and other programs. The more the government borrows; the deeper the country sinks into debt (Krulick, 2015). As federal debt grows, the congress raises the allowable debt ceiling. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $17.3 trillion in 2014 and that the federal budget deficit was $506 billion ("Congressional Budget Office,”).

Every Monday of February of each year, the Congress must have in the President's budget message so they can see how much the President would like to spend on each federal program that takes place. The government has a budget, which covers a whole fiscal year. A fiscal year lasts 12 months, it starts the first of October and goes through the following year on September 30. Fiscal year is a time that is chosen for accounting and taxing purposes. The federal government uses the fiscal year to prepare for financial statements and getting their accounting correct.

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.