Dbq Federal Budget

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.

The budget process is a powerful planning tool for government to make important resource decisions. According the Carney and Schoenfeld‘s article on How to read a Budget, an operating budget is a reflection of government’s financial plans. When a budget is

“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

Ecology, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as spelled out

Budget preparation is a process with designated groups and individuals having defined responsibilities. According to Irene S. Rubin “ The public budget process mediates between organizations and individuals who want different things and determines who gets what out of the budget.”1The Government set up an annual budget that includes people perspectives, opinions , accountability and than determine how the budget will get divided based on protected interests. Moreover, Public budgeting determines how government spend money, provide necessary resources , and limit government expenditures to prevent overspending.

5. How would you identify timescales, priorities and financial resources when preparing a budget? [2.3]

Some would say that the government is not correctly dividing the budget the correctly and that some modifications could be made. The Big Five is one of the three clusters that need adjustments. With the budget, the government is able to give support to families to meet the necessary

In each of the three budget clusters, The U.S. Government should make adjustments in the way it is distributing money with changes involving The Big Five, The Middle Five, and The Little Guys. The Big Five

“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,

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.

Should the Federal Budget be spent evenly or are some categories more important than others? There were goals for the United States when it was created, it is called the Preamble. The United States wants to fulfill these goals, however they have a budget. The government hasn’t been spreading the money evenly between the categories. (BGE) The category of the Big Five has way too much of the budget. If we spent more money on other categories, will the government be able to fulfill the goals of the Preamble? Within each of the three budget clusters -the Big Five, the Middle Five, and the Little Guys - several changes should be made because the amount of money the government is spending on one cluster isn’t benefitting our country.

Americans are not unfamiliar with the concept of a budget, in fact, most follow a budget on an everyday basis, however, the topic of a public budget can be overwhelming to many them. Although many Americans might have a small concept of how the federal budget works, very few are familiar with their local budget process, and even less familiar to their adopted annual city budget. Every local budget is as unique as the cities who developed them. The following paper will summarize, evaluate, and compare El Paso Texas and San Diego California’s 2012 budgets. It will compare their revenues, expenditures, and budget format. It will attempt to analyze the similarities and differences and determine the causes of such similarities and differences.

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.

Historically, incrementalism has characterized public budgeting because at its core, budgeting has evolved: increased and decreased through gradual stages within the realm of the political arena. The need for this one step at a time type of response, found within incremental budgeting, would have likely been caused by the known fact that prior to the 1900’s public welfare programs, federal, states, and even city spending did not exist in the way in which is more than obviously observable in today’s society simply because America did not employ an actual budgetary system. Therefore, as with any unchartered territory, it was approached in stages, with caution, a little at a time in response to the growing needs of the public. Aaron Wildavsky made this case in his book “The politics of the budgetary process,” when he pointed out “budgeting is incremental, not comprehensive. The beginning of wisdom about an agency budget is that it is almost never actively reviewed as a whole every year in the sense of reconsidering the value of all existing programs as compared to all alternatives. Instead, it is based on last year’s budget with special attention given to a narrow range of increases or decreases.” (Wildavsky 1964, p. 15)

Budget and budgetary control practices are undeniably indispensable as organizations routinely go about their business activities and operations. These organizations are constantly on the alert on how actual levels of performance agree with planned or budgeted performance. A budget expresses a plan in monetary terms. It is prepared and approved prior to a particular budgeted period and explicitly may show the income, expenditure and the capital to be employed by organizations in achieving their goals and objectives.