Federal spending is necessary for the economy and is essential to the accomplishment of national goals and advancement. This is why a budget is needed, however, there is no actual process mentioned in the Constitution that explains how Congress should do this. The Constitution states: No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time. (U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 9). This statement only says that the power has been designated to Congress. It does not stipulate how to use this power nor does it give instructions for the budgeting process. Even as the role of government continued to expand, there was still no procedure for drafting and implementing a budget. It became clear that this lack of protocol hindered Congress’s ability to govern the budget. As a result, Congress forged its own budget process. Congress has passed many acts and amendments, but to no avail because the process still lacks a stable and lasting way of budgeting. Government budgeting has changed, in that, there is a formal process in place now, but it is no more effective than when there was none because the changes made by law were aimed more at gaining and/or reclaiming power and not real budgeting. (Body) At the beginning of the 20th century, government budgeting was a decentralized process more conducive to the small government ideals at that time. The executive branch was less involved in the process and less influential in terms of funding decisions. There were no definitive procedures and no real central authority. The submission process was informal and chaotic. Each agency subm... ... middle of paper ... ...nd executive branches have yet to realize that neither reshuffling power nor changing rules is the answer. It is pointless to take a process that needs to be restructured and add new layers to it. Despite the many changes, its use as a political tool has remained. It is an instrument of control and subject to the politics of the President and Congress. For government budgeting to be effective, the process that guides it must be an evolving one. As the government gets bigger, it will most likely destabilize the existing method. Therefore, it must change to keep pace with the demands and growth of the country. The process must be capable of handling the complexity of our nation and its multifaceted needs so it will always need revisions and restructuring to face these new challenges. Its ultimate goal must be to reinforce the government and strengthen the country.
If the government changes the way they spend the budget, then they can change the way our government is ran. According to document C we spend 83% of the budget on “The Big Five”, which are the five main categories in the budget.We need to take 10%
The preamble of the United State’s constitution sets many goals for the country. These goals are to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense , promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves, and our posterity (US Const). With all of these goals it begs the question are, parts of the United State’s government meeting these goals? One specific case with this relationship is the relationship between the federal budget, and the goals in the preamble. The federal budget is meeting the goals set out in the preamble of the constitution because the federal budget defends the country, promotes the welfare of America’s citizen, and establishes justice
There is a five step process to create the budget annually to reflect the American people’s values in our democracy. The President submits the budget outline to Congress, then lawmakers release their budget resolution, the House and Senate set funding for governmental programs, once the House and Senate come to an agreement on the programs, the budget plan is returned to the President for his approval and signature. After all five steps, are completed the budget becomes law. The Department of Defense’s budget feeds the Defense Financial Guidance which then pays per Diem for travel, basic housing allowance, Tricare and basic pay to military. Additionally, the military workforce is affected based on spending for personnel
From her point of view and research she found only 7% of the public approves of Congress. Contrary to the public, legislative scholars do not believe this and would argue that Congress is strong and not dysfunctional. Whether legislative scholars have this opinion because they are more educated on the subject of Congress and the lawmaking process or not, this may cause their belief in a strong Congress (Binder 85-86). Throughout her essay she assesses Congress’ recent legislative performance, which the public believes is not its best effort. In the abstract of her essay she states, “I argue that even when Congress and the president have reached agreement on the big issues of the day, Congress's problem-solving capacity appears to have fallen to new lows in recent years,” (Binder). Binder’s stance on Congress seems to align with the public’s majority view of a dysfunctional
The main purpose of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Act of 1985, which is broken down into five parts: Part A-Congressional Budget Process Part B- Budget Submitted by the President and Part C- Emergency Powers to eliminate Deficits in Excess of Maximum Deficit Amount, Part D- Budgetary Treatment of Social Security Trust Funds, and Part E- Miscellaneous and Related Provisions, is to provide a reduction in the deficit to zero within the five years that it is enacted (1986-1991); by increasing the debt ceiling between and limited to $1,847.800,000,000 or $2,078,700,000,000 by and after the 1st of October in 1985. The purpose of the acts was to eliminate the deficit of the United States federal budget, which was, at the time, the highest
The United States constitution is a great document. It has built a government system from scratch that has withstanded the test of time long enough to become the longest lasting government in the history of the world. But, even the constitution has it’s flaws. When the framers were creating the constitution they knew it would not be a perfect document so they left guidelines for how to change it when needed. Unfortunately sometimes things that might seem like second nature slip by and don’t get put into these kinds of documents. I am proposing that a change gets made to the constitution by imposing a requirement that the congress and the Chief Executive work together to establish a federal budget. The bill must contain a provision requiring congress to reduce spending throughout all areas of the federal budget. The congress and the presidency have always had a precedent of submitting a balanced federal budget but it was very often farce and not taken seriously. The federal budget is something that is very important to balance. You can see what happens when we don’t take precautions on the budget by looking at the current debt crisis we are in.
The United States government is designed with checks and balances to ensure that no one branch can become more powerful than another. Though this may be the case, it is still possible that one branch of the our government can still be more powerful than the others. The equality of power in our government has constantly changed over the course of the life of the United States. Although these changes have occurred, we still have not made all of the branches equal and the inequality has been due to meet the demands of the time. For example, in 1938 our country was facing a depression and nothing was getting done. So, Roosevelt took it upon himself to give the Executive branch more power, to then in turn, help the country creep back out of the hole it had dug itself. After the country didn’t need the reform bills and the size of the government that Roosevelt had put it, things were then downsized and put into a more stable equilibrium. Though there were attempts to make everything equal, the Legislative Branch now holds the majority of the power, and is the most powerful branch that our government has.
...wers Congress has that makes it paramount to the executive and legislative branches are the abilities to appropriate funds, declare war, and create laws. The ability to appropriate funds is bestowed upon the legislative branch because it is the branch that controls all federal projects and makes rules and regulations on how those projects run. The ability to declare war is entrusted in the legislative branch because Congress is in charge of foreign affairs and National Security; therefore, they can declare war if there is a breach in the nation’s security. The essential ability the legislative branch can do is creating laws. This power is so important because it enables the government to create order, as well as have freedoms, in society and within the government. The legislative branch is the most powerful branch, and will hopefully remain that way, in the future.
Government has filled a spot in the American Society that once belonged to the churches. People regularly attended church throughout American history and use the church as a place of instruction, guidance, support, and charity. The government now fills a larger role in American’s lives and at the same time church attendance is diminishing. The government is growing at a rapid pace and the expanded social programs have more influence on Americans than the church. America is a nation of immigrants which most fled from large governments (sometime oppressive) and now the American government is poised to grow larger than ever. The ideas behind the growth of government can have noble intentions, but more often than not results in wasted money and harm to the peoples it intends to help, and is replacing the roles churches once filled as a guiding and supportive structure in peoples lives.
There are several powers expressly given to Congress in Article 1 of the constitution. These expressed powers are basically a laundry list of Congressional duties. These include, but are not limited to, the power to lay and collect taxes, the power to borrow money on behalf of the United States credit, the power to coin money and regulate it's value, the power to declare war, the power to raise and support armies, the power to establish post offices and postal roads and the power to regulate commerce between the states, as well as with the Indian tribes and with foreign nations. These powers were given at this level of government by our forefather because they are important items that must be regulated at the national level. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if each state was able to coin it's own money and set the value themselves. While Congress may be responsible for things of great importance to our security and national economy “no one of the powers transferred to the federal government is unnecessary or improper”(Federalist No.45) and“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined.” (Federalist No.45). This helps to ensure that Congress' power is k...
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 federal government has a budget. This is called the Federal budget, and is made up of five important steps.It goes through a period called “fiscal year”. It begins October 1 and it ends September 30 of the next year.The budget can become very complex, just because of how many parties are are involved, and how big the budget is.This period can begin in any 12 months chosen for keeping accounts.
The constitution allows that congress “shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises and to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the people”. In
While traditional budgets can be useful in assisting managers with internal control, they are not typically as useful as a policy or decision making tool. Line-item budgets assure elected and administrative officials that money is being spent only for approved purposes, but they do not show what is being accomplished with the money. (Government of Alberta, 3) Additional drawbacks to line-item budgets involve the promotion of indolence, due to the minor modifications made to budget planning each year. Line-item budgeting can result in ineffective and costly actions because management is not allowed the flexibility to address changing situations. (Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, 7) Many government programs are often forced to use funding, or lose funding at the end of a program year; these restrictive processes have the potential to invite micromanagement and impede the fulfillment of program objectives. (Government of Alberta, 3) In comparison, performance budgeting has more of a policymaking orientation it links plans, measures, and budgets and it pushes administrators and policymakers to contemplate the big picture. (Brewer, 23) Performance budgeting provides useful information about the impact of budget decisions on people and gives departments increased budgetary flexibility. Additionally, performance budgeting allows for ongoing monitoring and strengthens legislative decision making and oversight.
Budgeting in the public sector is typically performed with the culmination of many departments. It combines planning and budgeting to assist individual departments in developing their budget to be consistent with specific objectives as well as strategic goals. Revenues can be particularly challenging to forecast due to unknowns such as enrollment and state funding. “Black Hawk College relies on three primary sources of revenue: tuition and fees, property taxes including Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax (CCPRT), and state funding” (Black Hawk College, 2009). In addition to these revenue sources, the college receives revenue by way of interest income, facilities rental, federal sources, customized training, and contingency funding.