The Pros And Cons Of Congressional Spending

Friedman, Uri. “$300,000 an Hour: The Cost of Fighting ISIS”. The Atlantic, The Atlantic. 12

It is interesting that a long time ago President Woodrow Wilson vetoed a bill that Congress had just enacted authorizing legislation to have an executive budget.But, the very next year President Warren G. Harding decided it was time for an executive budget, and he signed it into law. This is a big contrast from not only one President to the next, but one year to the next. Each President had their own opinion on how the government should spend the people's money in this case.

In the article, “The Trump Budget Legacy: A Permanent $1 Trillion Federal Deficit,” the author, Stan Collender, reasons that President Trump’s budget will leave a 1 Trillion dollar federal deficit. He argues that, “the spending and taxing policies about to be put in place by the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress will balloon the federal deficit to $1 trillion or more every year going forward” (Collender, 2017). He attributes this to the fact that it appears all of the proposed cuts won’t pass the U.S. Congress and Senate.

The federal budget deficit is where government spends more than it receives. This deficit is financed either through borrowing or issuing money. The U.S. Treasury has borrowed trillions of dollars to rescue the financial system. When compared to other countries the sum of money is greater than what other countries borrow. Questions like who holds most of our debt and where is most of the money spent will be answered in this essay.

This paper addresses the following question: what determines government spending in the United States. In short, I believe real government spending to be a function of partisan political control. Specifically, I hypothesizes that a majority congressional representation by either the Democrats or the Republicans does not affect the level real federal government spending. In other words, government spending does not increase due to a Democrat majority or decline due to a Republican majority.

The Federal budget for the United States is a very important part of what the president must put together every year so every department in the government can know what they will be able to spend in the upcoming year. Government spending generally exceeds the budget put in place which is why America is so far into debt, the good thing about the budget is that about 21% of it goes back into the economy. The fiscal policy is how the government spending and taxation influence the economy based on what goods and services are purchased or the taxes collected.

Some say you have to spend a dollar to make a dollar, when it’s our government its called deficit spending. Deficit spending is the result in the government spending more during a period of time then they make back in revenue causing a debt. This type of spending is normally during an economic recession and is justified in order to give the economy a jump-start in reviving. The validation of this is to stop the economy from losing more money as individuals become unemployed resulting in lose of taxable revenue. This drastic strategy has its advantages and disadvantages for both long term and short-term economic effects. “There are those that argue that government borrowing and spending would create jobs and induce economic growth which would lead us out of the recession. Conservative economists on the other hand argue that government spending causes high interest rates which in turn curbs investment and economic growth.” (Hassan and Nassar, 2015) While it may help create more jobs, wages and programs it can also cause taxes and interest rates to rise. If a consumer cant afford the inflated economy then the new job starts to seem obsolete.

The government is trying to cut down on their government spending by changing the way they do the census. As of now, they are spending 17 billion dollars on the preparation and the actual census. With their new plan, they plan to save 5 billion dollars. They are experimenting in L.A. right now. The plan is to send several notices to the citizens that tells them to go online and ask them questions about the owner and the amount of people living in each home. However, Blumerman, the director of the decennial census, expects 60,000 out of 225,000 homes not to respond. These homes will get a worker from the census sent to them. In order to save money, the workers will use an iPad to get rid of the costs of paper. The iPad is also a benefit because

Ever since WW2, the US government has spent a significant portion of its GDP on military funding. Many citizens think that the government should spend less on military but, a few think they should spend more. While it seems like a simple question, answer is a lot more complicated than it initially looks. The United States is the supreme world power, at a cost though. That cost is nearly 600 billion dollars. (National Priorities). However, other nations, mainly China and Russia, have increased their military power which makes some people nervous about what the US government is doing about it. For the most part, the US government has kept its military budget the same for the past decade. While

According to Albert Einstein, Insanity is defined as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Congressional fundraising is a process where candidates can raise money to finance their campaign. Candidates have various ways to raise money. In general, the two main ways are holding fundraising events and calling people for donations. When a candidate accumulates enough money, they can use the funds to advertise their campaign or hold assemblies. Theoretically, this is how congressional fundraising should work, but not anymore. Over the years there are rising problems with congressional fundraising. Congressional fundraising takes a very long time to generate enough funds to satisfy a politician’s goal, this means

However, to some, it is considered a controversial political issue a negative expenditure by the federal government and sees as an effect to citizens and the loanable market. The excessive government spending lead to a budget deficit the opposite of deficit spending. Assume an individual spends excessively, there is the tendency of borrowing from someone to continue the spending. Today, several countries borrow from wealthy nations because of their economy's strength. Deficit spending does not allow saving or interest earned due to debt. For instance, most lending from another country comes with a high-interest rate. It also leads to lower economic growth. The spending can sometimes be beyond what is available in the yearly budget considered

Congress likely has the authority to cut federal funding for public TPFs that fail to comply with the BDA. The Spending Clause allows Congress to grant funds to States to incentivize certain actions, but Congress must treat this as a voluntary contract. U.S. Const. Art. 1, § 8. National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012).

Budget cuts are not a one-time harm, they will continue to hurt students as they pursue higher education. Funding is not just an issue among public schooling at the K-12 level, it is also an issue many universities are facing. States are no longer giving colleges and universities the funding they once had. Kathryn McNutt asserts that the severe funding cuts are only beginning at the K-12 level and will expand further into the collegiate level. McNutt states, “Sanders said state funding provides less than 8 percent of the OU Health Sciences Center’s $1 billion budget and less than 6 percent of the College of Medicine’s budget.” Due to the lack of state funding colleges are looking for other types of sponsorship and if none can be found they may have to cut some of their programs. Colleges are at risk of losing popular programs at their schools which would cause a decrease within their enrollment. Students are also at risk when faced with the possible loss of programs. Students enrolled in a program that gets cut have no compensation, this would put students as well as the college in a very bad position both financially and legally.

United States Economic and Military Dominance Threatened by Military Spending It is assumed that the United States economic and military dominance is threatened by its annual military spending budget. Military spending today has a long history that is traced back to the post-WWII era when the United States engaged in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and in subsequent conflicts and perceived crises. In order for the government to increase military spending, it has justified the need for additional arms through fear of other countries. During the Cold War, that fear was that the Soviet Union had nuclear weaponry that was technologically advanced beyond what the U.S. was capable of.

Deficit spending is when purchases exceed income. It is usually attributed to government spending within an economy. Although it can happen to both individual and business, when government spends more and not able to balance the budget, we say it is deficit spending. Deficit spending is created each fiscal year by congress and government because the spending by government causes the growth of the economy. For example, in the United State deficit spending is mainly caused by social, security, and medical cost. Government spends most of its revenue in each fiscal year into this payment. According to Kimberly Amadeo(2017) he said “ most people don’t realize that wars create more deficit spending than the create recession. The war in Afghanistan cost $28.7 billion in 2001.The war in Iraq for deployed military costs $72.5 billion by 2003. In 2008, the total cost grew to $186.6 billion.