The Federal Budget Process Essay

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.

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.

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.

“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,

The Commissioners Court is required to adopt a final budget by no later than the close of the calendar year. This annual budget serves as the foundation for the County’s financial planning and control. The budget includes appropriations for the general fund, certain special revenue funds, debt service funds, and proprietary funds. The budget is prepared by fund, function, department, and object codes. Transfer of appropriations between departments requires the approval of Commissioners Court.

The first feature is that the website provides detailed information regarding the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). Rebecca, T. (n.d) states that COBRA was, “…established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to help workers who lose their jobs maintain their employer-sponsored health insurance.” This section of the website is broken down into sections for employees, employers, posters and flyers, videos, and general information

The federal government and states each have budgets that outline the amount of money that will be collected from taxes, how much will be spent in revenues, and what programs will receive money allocated to them from these expenditures. Every fiscal year, the federal budget and state budgets are reset so that they start from October 1st until the end of September of the following year. The federal government’s budget contains allocations for health care, pensions, education, defense, and welfare. The State of Colorado’s budget contains expenditures allocated to education, health care, pensions, protection, transport, and welfare (Chantrill, 2015). The

Congress and the President focus on this heavily. Mandatory spending is money that is given for entitlements such as Social Security and Medicaid. It is the largest portion of the budget and expected to grow. Congress and the President focus on this area of the budget the least because the money given out is determined by a formula based around the number of eligible households. Tax revenue is the money the government receives from taxes to fund its spending priorities.

Political commentators argue that another government shutdown as proposed by the Republican Party would be retrogressive. However, preventing another government shutdown requires collective action from the President and Congress. A delay in passing the appropriations bill is responsible for hampering the government spending plans for the 2016 fiscal year. According to political scholars spending caps introduced by the Obama administration are viable given that they limit the maximum amount of government expenditure. Additionally, the Budget Control Act is given credit for reducing the level of federal spending.

The mandatory balanced budget is another topic that is thrown around in Congress. According to Wikipedia, every state with the exception of Vermont contains some sort of a balanced budget. Our Federal Government does not. Our Federal Government is not required to have a balanced budget. With that being said, that means that as long as the bill is passed, they are allowed to spend as they please. No wonder why our debt is almost at twenty trillion..

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.

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 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.

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

Budgetary control is part of overall organisation control and is concerned primarily with the control of performance. The use of budgetary control in performance management has of late taken on greater importance especially as a more integrative control mechanism for the organisation. Discuss.