Discretionary spending requires annual approval through appropriations bills, which are included in the federal budget. Half of all discretionary spending is allocated to the Defense Department, while the remaining half is allocated to various projects such as veterans' affairs, NASA, scientific research, medical programs, job training, and environmental initiatives. In contrast, mandatory spending is allocated to entitlement programs that are established by law and continue each year. These programs include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare, among others. It is important to note that spending and eligibility criteria for these programs are implemented by law, which has placed an overwhelming strain on the federal budget. The lecture notes further describe mandatory spending when discussing entitlement programs, stating that they now comprise more than half of the federal budget, with Social Security and Medicare being the most expensive to operate, and others including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
“President Obama’s FY2014 base budget request of $552.0 billion in discretionary budget Authority for the Department of Defense (DOD) and defense-related programs of other agencies (excluding war costs), exceeded by $53.9 billion the legally binding cap on defense funding for FY2014 that was enacted in 2011 as part of the BCA.” Similarly, in their initial actions on the annual defense funding bills for FY2014, the House and the Armed Servi...
McClatchy-Tribune News Service. "Editorials on the federal budget". McClatchy - Tribune News Service. 03 Feb 2010 eLibrary. Web. 18 Feb 2010.
The little guys make up 3% of the federal budget, which is not very much. Clearly the government is not splitting the budget fairly. According to( Document E) the smallest of this category is the National Park Service. The people on earth are cutting down trees and lots of national parks for their own benefits. We need to take the 10% of the defence budget and add to the National Park Services. All together the National Park Service will have 10,000,000 dollars added to their budget, making a total of 3,010,000,000 that can benefit not only the country but maybe even the
Federal laws and regulations requiring specific action from state and local governments without providing federal funding to pay for it are called “ unfounded mandates.”
For decades, one of the many externalities that the government is trying to solve is the rising costs of healthcare. "Rising healthcare costs have hurt American competitiveness, forced too many families into bankruptcy to get their families the care they need, and driven up our nation's long-term deficit" ("Deficit-Reducing Healthcare Reform," 2014). The United States national government plays a major role in organizing, overseeing, financing, and more so than ever delivering health care (Jaffe, 2009). Though the government does not provide healthcare directly, it serves as a financing agent for publicly funded healthcare programs through the taxation of citizens. The total share of the national publicly funded health spending by various governments amounts to 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, GDP (Jaffe, 2009). By 2019, government spending on Medicare and Medicaid is expected to rise to 6 percent and 12 percent by 2050 (Jaffe, 2009). The percentages, documented from the Health Policy Brief (2009) by Jaffe, are from Medicare and Medicaid alone. The rapid rates are not due to increase of enrollment but growth in per capita costs for providing healthcare, especially via Medicare.
The United States is facing a large military budget spending issue with the Department of Defence reporting a cost of around $525.4 billion this past year. Washington Posts announced that, "The United States spent more on its military than the next 13 nations combined in 2011." While military spending is a large part of the government budget, and there is enough room to reduce spending as long as there are a set of precautions of which necessities the government cannot cut.
Completeness: All documents are identified with a unique number and have a numerical sequence checked.
The U.S. Constitution Preamble lists the government’s five goals for filling the needs of the citizens. The current U.S. budget is not allocating its funds to meet the goals listed in the Preamble as well as it could be. In each of the three budget clusters, the U.S. government should make adjustments in the way it is distributing money: changes involving The Big Five, changes involving The Middle Five, and changes involving The Little Guys.
What percent of the total federal budget is spent on this program relative to other programs?
Because of this many Americans have long advocated for Military Defense cuts and redirections of funds to both the public sector and other Military Institutions like Veteran Affairs (VA) and Military Personnel Healthcare. If the U.S. were to reduce/re-appropriate the National Security Budget, they would see improvements in the public sector, in veteran care, and could improve other sections of the FDB (Federal Discretionary Budget).
Chenn, Menzie. “The Allocation of Stimulus Funds.” Econbrowser. Econbrowser. 20 April 2009. Web. 4 May 2011.
Americans are living longer, retiring young and seeking more healthcare services. Resources rationing can minimize wastefulness and cost. Enforcing eligibility requirements and monitoring government program’s funds to prevent fraudulent activities.
What is the federal budget? The federal budget is the yearly plan for how the US government will spend its money. After analyzing the federal budget, it was evident that the money was dispersed into three different clusters; the Big Five, the Middle Five, and the Little Guys. Although at first glance, the money may seem to be being evenly dispersed throughout the three, when taking a deeper look, there is clearly a fine line between what the government needs and what the government wants. The real question is; is the United States distributing its money correctly? In my opinion, after much research, the government could do a better job with the way it allocates its money. In each of the three budget clusters, the U.S. government should make
The federal budget is known as the notorious economic tank from which money is distributed to various programs. The money used every fiscal year, which begins October 1st and ends September 30th the next year, belongs to the people. The government raises this money through taxes and they spend it on national defense, Medicare, and social security. The federal budget is an exercise in making choices, and those options will certainly affect individuals living in the U.S. These choices cause debt to pile up on the government, who is struggling to make it disappear. The deficit and debt of a government gauges how well it is being run and how well it has been run in the past. According to The Economist the national debt is the total outstanding borrowing of a country’s government; it is an accumulation of deficits that has yet to be paid off (Economist, A-Z). The current U.S. federal deficit, as of the 2013 fiscal year, is a monumental $680 billion dollars, adding to an even higher debt. Any attempt to diminish this debt has the consumer footing the bill, but there has to be a different way. There have been requests to increase taxes, to raise revenues for transportation infrastructure, to restrategize the military force or to make defense more affordable (“15 Ways to Rethink the Federal Budget”, Brookings).
The national budget is the main instrument through which governments collect resources from the economy, in a sufficient and appropriate manner; and allocate and use those resources responsively, efficiently and effectively (Todorovic & Djordjevic, 2009). The work of public budget has increased extremely more complicated, abstruse and worrying (Hou, 2006, p.730).