Budgeting is a familiar term to most American families. Dictionary.com defines budgeting as an estimate, often itemized, of expected income and expense for a given period in the future. In order to avoid debt, bankruptcy, or overspending it is common to create a spreadsheet of some sort tracking your spending and income. On a grander scheme, the Unites States has to budget as well. 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 …show more content…
versus weapons, training, and research. How the government allocates money for the military plays a huge part in my daily life. As a member of the military, I earn a pay check working for the government. If the money is not properly budgeted and distributed, not only will my pay but also my benefits will be affected. Basic pay is just a small portion of the money we as military members depend on. Medical, housing, per diem and basic allowances are necessary for military members to make a fairly comfortable living. It is necessary for the government to consider and allocate spending for the Department of Defense (DOD) in order to sustain the world’s greatest military. The Defense component of the federal budget makes up about 21% of the federal outlay for fiscal year 2015. The budget includes military, civilian defense, veterans, foreign military aid, foreign economic aid, research and development, and defense not elsewhere classified. The money for the federal defense comes from taxes, most specifically tax revenue from federal funds (55%) and tax revenue from trust funds (30%). The rest of the money not raised from the aforementioned is borrowed (16%). The question then is raised, if there are trillions of dollars collected in taxes and borrowing, where does this money go? Of mandatory spending (65%), interest on debt (6%) and discretionary spending (29%), the military is paid through discretionary spending. The DOD’s discretionary spending encounters challenges distributing the money, namely being the largest employer in the world. There are over 3.2 million people employed and are led by the Secretary of Defense (SecDef). According to Mr. Chuck Hagel, the former SecDef, the uncertainty of the budget is the biggest challenge facing the military. Particularly, in order to continue funding for military weapons systems to be built (which usually takes years) there has to be a constant flow of income to complete the process. Since Ashton Carter took over the SecDef position and vowed to ensure a better strategy on budgeting. Since the government employees endured sequestration and furloughs in 2014, and Carter has pushed to ensure sequester doesn’t happen. He believes sequester puts a big risk on national defense. Sequestration is a mandate on trillions of dollars will be cut from federal agencies over the next decade. Five-hundred million of those dollars will be deducted from the military. Among all the budgetary stresses, the monies typically spent on support programs for troops the infrastructure for sustained economic growth is necessary to ensure not to neglect the military programs and pay. SecDef Carter wants to cultivate the growth of critical investments for the all-volunteer defense force so we do not imperial military edge. The appropriate level of military spending and budget is a constant debate. One gauge of military power is the budget. Currently the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are coming to a close so the monies spent on the military is becoming less and less. Since the defense budget is dwindling, not only will personnel be affected but also the equipment like tanks, aircraft, and vehicles. The United States has not seen such a decline in defense budget since the end of World War II. Warfare and military financial information over the past few decades carries trends and theories. In the nineteenth century, most civilizations did not have control over military spending or plans to control the spending. Rulers has centralized control over the military and decisions based on a hierarchy. Taxes were paid to the rulers then allocated at the ruler’s discretion creating difficulty in planning and monitoring the revenue for military campaigns. Later is was learned that the efficiency of tax collection and distribution, but until then soldiers typically looted enemy territory for their supplies. The Roman Empire was the first efficient military budgeters. Although taxation was only collected in crisis times and most of the time the citizens evaded their taxes, the Roman Empire came to an end in the fourth century. The Middle Ages Europeans used their military in a more effective, taxation reflective manner. For a price or a service communities were given protection. Merovingian era trained and specialized their soldier and provided them with more equipment and horses. Carolingian era treated their military like their superior citizens. By the fourteenth century it was clear that taxation and tax collection were important to sustaining warfare and sustaining larger armies. On to the seventeenth century when armed conflicts were on the rise, the participants of the warfare determined their allegiance based on long-term credit. The members did this because it was known the first government to run out of money was the first to surrender. The eighteenth century was the first real acknowledgement that stability in finance during a war or crisis was crucial. The Dutch were the first government/military to show success because of their ability to pay their troops promptly. Total wars or World Wars in the ninetieth and twentieth centuries finally made it clear that a more financially responsible system were necessary to not only survive a war but also to save lives of those fighting the battles. The gross domestic product (GDP) now dedicated more than half of their money to the military. Now that the United States is fighting the war on terrorism and military spending is represented in the GDP, it is still in modest amounts. The United States started its government spending plan in the beginning of the twentieth century. The GDP defense establishment was only 1.25 percent at that time until World War I when it raised to 20 percent. Then came the Great Depression and the federal spending rose to a whapping 20 percent. World War II created a huge spike at 41 percent of the GDP in 1945. The government defense spending dropped back to 7.2 percent after the war was over. Up to 15 percent during the Korean War and then maintaining around 10 for the Cold and Vietnam wars. The defense budget dropped significantly until 2010 when the first battles with the Islamic extremists began and the budget rose to 5.7 percent. The Obama administration has since dropped the budget to 4.5 percent and plans to drop it even further to 3.8 by the year 2020. The United States military is an all-volunteer force.
The cost of the personnel has increased to nearly an unsustainable rate since 2000. Wartime funding was increased over inflation but the personnel has dropped. That being said, the defense spending in 2015 will be about $600 billion or 3.24 of the GDP. The defense budget pays into not only base defense, but also to veterans, civilian and foreign military aid. Each of these expenditures go into the percentage that the government is allocating to defense. Contrary to popular opinion, the money does not strictly go to weapons and military personnel. Health and care for military and veterans alike is on the rise. Retiree pay and benefits comprise the DOD spending for veterans. As discussed, funding for defense is important when it comes to sustaining our country and being a competitor for war
spending. Spending for defense in the United States is more than seven of the next highest countries combined. China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, United Kingdom, India, and Germany together only equal about $601 billion as compared to our $610 billion. The chart below demonstrates this in a pictorial form. China is planning on increasing spending over the next thirty years to closer match the United States’ spending in 2045. This expected increase has caused much tension between the Asian territories as they feel pressured to do the same. Japan actually increased its spending for the first time in ten years due to the disputes. Countries with oil revenues have been able to allocate that money to their military rather than increasing taxes. Public opinion of the American people on military spending has left a division of ideas and thoughts. The President’s plant to decrease military spending has mixed views. Those who agree and disagree with the amount of military spending are fairly even. The nation historically thought the government spent way too much on the military. As aforementioned, the GDP has varied tremendously over the past centuries. Likewise, the American opinion has varied with the spending. Spending according to the American public was too high during Vietnam and conversely it was too low with the drop in the 1990s. Below is a poll from Gallup that demonstrates the public opinion on spending.
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%
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.
The Military draft is the random selection of qualified citizens of the United States, that is put to use when a crisis occurs, like a war. When American citizens reached age 18, they had to sign up for eligibility to be drafted to go to war for their country. Throughout the country’s history, the requirements and limitations of drafting have changed. The draft has been going on since colonial times in America in order to fulfill the country’s military needs when there were not enough volunteer fighters for the military. The total amount of soldiers that one side has fighting for it is an important factor in any type of battle so getting the necessary amount of fighters is crucial. The draft assures everyone that this military need is satisfied at any point in time. Many people feel like the draft is not fair and not “American” and the draft has seen so much conflict since its invention. Throughout the history of the United States, the military draft has been a very important, yet highly controversial topic at the same time.
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
Defense receives the most support and money. Politicians support military spending, mainly because it is “the only form of large-scale public investment that can consistently win political support” (Pollin). However, the heavy support for military spending is counterproductive for our nation’s economy. Since military spending increased in 2001, several industries and programs have had to “bite the bullet.” The Department of Education often gets fewer funds each fiscal year to cover the military budget. Then again, the United States leads all countries in money spent on education. The U.S. education system is well funded, but that statistic is very misleading. If the high cost of college is excluded, the United States ranks slightly above average in education spending (OECD). Per the OECD, U.S. spending is decreasing at a 1% average (OECD). This doesn’t seem like much, but it is still a step in the wrong direction. Only Mexico, Iceland, and Ireland have cut more (OECD). Coincidentally, the percentage of teachers that quit within five years is extremely high at 46% (OECD)! This isn’t surprising considering all teachers in the U.S. work so many hours and are still underpaid. U.S. primary school teachers spend the most time in the classroom amongst all PISA countries
The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred. The Budget Process Budgetary planning may differ between organizations. Single-period budgets and rolling budgets have methodologies that provide advantages and disadvantages that may make one budget time frame better than another. A single period may require less time in planning during a fiscal year, but is less accurate than a rolling budget that is continuously planned on a repetitive basis. In either case, budgets are planned in advance in order for a company to operate profitably, and less so to have "actual results equal budgeted results."
Since the attacks a number of civil defense programs have been initiated, which leads to more departments asking for an allowance within the national budget. This ultimately is leading to a larger and larger deficit that is quickly encompassing full percentage points of our GDP. There is a debate on how much defense spending is actually needed, because during the Clinton administration there were massive cuts to the defense budget, which lead to critics saying that our military force was in question. These same critics said that without the funds that had been cut-off by Clinton the military would spiral down to not being able to defend the homeland, let alone take on any offensive. The one argument I have is that President Bush was not in office long enough for his increased defense budget to take affect when he overthrew two regimes (Afghanistan & Iraq) with the same military force that was said to be completely ineffective because of lack of funds.
There are 6 largest budgets items in the U.S government, they are Medicare/Medicaid ($96 billions), Social Security ($88 billions), Defense/War ($58 billions), Income Security ($31 billions), Net Interest on debt ($24 billions), Federal Pensions ($25 billions). Each one has its own importance though the U.S government should cut back spending on few of the budget items. They conducted survey and got federal pension and defense/war should be cut back. In my point of view they should cut back in federal pension because the defense is mandatory for U.S citizens the government should protect citizens that is there responsibility, without defense we can’t protect from enemies foreign and domestic.
Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.
Introduction As all states are facing budget cuts, it is imperative that all stakeholders work together to ensure academic success for all students. The idea then seems to be, teachers must learn to do more with less resources. Throughout the video, there were many main points made about how to cut the budget but not place student achievement at risk. For example schools must determine what expenditures could be removed and replaced with increasing innovation in the classroom. Another way is for schools to determine students’ performance on high performance testing and design budget to benefit this.
These are men and women who sacrificed their lives to protect our families, friends, schools, jobs, homes, the country, and everything else that we have. We need them. We never know when something tragedy could happen we need to be ready for anything. Military use the money for research that drives a lot of future products. According to business insider.com the U.S. has the world’s strongest military.
In our country today our citizens go through the day like everything is perfectly fine when they never really notice or care to think of the problems this country of ours is facing everyday unless it is effecting them directly. Many people don’t notice our constant struggle over in other countries especially in the Middle East regarding our military and allies, or how each day our country goes deeper in debt, or even the fact that our government has trouble getting things done and passed due to the disagreements between our two political parties. I believe that until these problems are solved like slowly pulling troops out our current engagements and just supporting our allies, or a major one is cutting back on certain programs and funding
Budget is combining your income and expenses to decide how much money you are going to spend on an item. Budget is an important step to determine your financial health and financial stability. It’s an important financial tool because it can help plan for expenses, cut cost were unneeded, save for future goals, plan for emergencies that occur inexpediently, and list what you are spending and saving.
This sound like a lot, but a chart by Andrew Chamberlain he shows that this seventeen billion is only part of a small sliver that includes many other programs. This sliver that Chamberlain calls “Other” only accounts for six cents on every tax payers dollar. To put this in perspective, social security accounts for twenty one cents on every tax payers dollar. This chart also shows that we are only spending three cents on the dollar for veterans benefits, but we spend nineteen cents on the military (Chamberlain 5-6). I understand that we must have a military to protect our country, but I don't see how we can spend so much on creating and maintaining a military, and spend so little on taking care of our veterans when they come back.
“Flight 208 to Los Angeles is now boarding. Section N you may now take your seats”. You looked down at your carry-on bag to make sure you have everything packed up, even though you took nothing out, and headed toward the flight attendant and handed her your ticket. As your walking through the tunnel, the sound of the planes jets put just enough pressure on your body, causing your pulse to increase. “Why are you nervous, you been on planes before”, you ask yourself. You shake your head and start to inhale and before you could finish getting your lungs to the maximum capacity they could hold, a man wearing a white shirt twice his size and jeans that also seemed