Red Logan #12252 Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Federal Budget 101 The U.S. Congress sets a federal budget every year in the trillions of dollars. Few people know how much money that is so we created a breakdown of federal spending in simple terms. Let's put the 2011 federal budget into perspective: U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000 Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000 New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000 National debt: $14,271,000,000,000 Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget) It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family. Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700 Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200 Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500 Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710 Amount cut from the budget: $385 So in effect last month Congress, or in this example the Jones family, sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $385 from its annual budget. What family would cut $385 of spending in order to solve $16,500 in deficit spending? It is a start, although hardly a solution. Now after years of this, the Jones family has $142,710 of debt on its credit card (which is the equivalent of the national debt). You would think the Jones family would recognize and address this situation, but it does not. Neither does Congress. The root of the debt problem is that the voters typically do not send people to Congress to save money. They are sent there to bring home the bacon to their own home state. To effect budget change, we need to change the job description and give Congress new marching orders. It is awfully hard (but not impossible) to reverse course and tell the government to stop borrowing money from our children and spending it now. In effect, what we have is a reverse mortgage on the country. The problem is that the voters have become addicted to the money. Moreover, the American voters are still in the denial stage, and do not want to face the possibility of going into rehab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 If this is accurate, and I didn't see any evidence it is not, then we are totally screwed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Lizard Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 If this is accurate, and I didn't see any evidence it is not, then we are totally screwed. The numbers could be off a couple of million one way or the other...But close enough for government work... Texas Lizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hacker, SASS #55963 Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 We need to send the nut-cases in washington the message that we must stop this insane borrowing. Even the Jones should have been able to figure this one out. But congress has no reason to stop. We tell them we want jobs, ss, medicare, medicaid, school lunch programs. They decide we also want bridges to nowhere, airfields in the middle of nowhere, research on animals that are not ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 If this is accurate, and I didn't see any evidence it is not, then we are totally screwed. Ah...there is one more small detail..... Now imagine that all of that debt incurred by Mom and Dad becomes their children's debt when Mom and Dad get too old to work........how would you like your kids to start out with THAT on their backs????? I hate to say it, but we need more revenue AND big cuts; that means full-scale tax code re-write (PLEASE don't call it "reform" - it's not)and hard-to-bear cuts in military, entitlements and government overhead. No exceptions, no pet projects, no pork. And that's why the likelihood of success is very low. Especially in the middle of an election cycle. LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 I am in agreement with most of what you say, but rather than get political and discuss the giving away of money we don't have to people that want to kill us-I think I will stick with the We are screwed sentiment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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