Understanding the Federal Budget (2013) |
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Author:
| Blackford, George H. |
ISBN: | 978-1-881564-03-4 |
Publication Date: | Sep 2014 |
Publisher: | D M C Software, Incorporated
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Book Format: | Ebook |
List Price: | USD $3.99 |
Book Description:
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The purpose of this eBook is to clarify the actual, real-world choices faced by the American people in dealing with the federal budget. Toward this end, the federal budget is explained both in terms of the actual numbers in the budget and in terms of the historical processes that led to the budget we have today. This explanation begins with the relationships between federal expenditures, revenues, surpluses, deficits, and the national debt with particular attention being paid to the...
More DescriptionThe purpose of this eBook is to clarify the actual, real-world choices faced by the American people in dealing with the federal budget. Toward this end, the federal budget is explained both in terms of the actual numbers in the budget and in terms of the historical processes that led to the budget we have today. This explanation begins with the relationships between federal expenditures, revenues, surpluses, deficits, and the national debt with particular attention being paid to the definitions that are needed to understand these concepts. We then look at the actual numbers in the budget. When we do this, we find that the dramatic increase in the size of the federal budget (relative to the economy) that has occurred since the 1920s took place during the 1930s and 1940s and that the size of the federal budget has been relatively stable since the 1950s. At the same time we find that the composition of federal expenditures has changed dramatically since the 1950s. In the early 1950s the budget was dominated by defense and today it is dominated social insurance programs. The composition of federal revenues has also changed dramatically since the early 1950s. Corporate taxes have decreased (relative to total federal revenues) and payroll taxes have increased. The nature and extent of our social insurance and welfare programs (and government revenues) are examined in detail as are the government expenditures on these programs. The final chapter provides a summary the federal budget and examines the role played by waste, fraud, and abuse. It argues that there simply aren't enough specific instances of waste, fraud, and abuse of sufficient magnitude to make a difference in the size of the federal budget. What this means is that, if we want to balance the budget through expenditure cuts, we must look to cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and defense because that is where the money is. It also means that if we truly want to balance the federal budget, and if we are not willing to make substantial cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and defense, we must increase taxes.