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<< Previous: One More Thing | Next: Television: Lost >>

The Federal Budget Game
Thursday, 2004 September 9 - 11:49 pm
Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "If you believe that your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does, then you are a Republican." Okay, Republicans, let's play a little game called "balance the $2 trillion federal budget".

Below is the 2004 Federal Budget. We won't even count all the new federal programs proposed by both Presidential candidates, or the $100 billion extra or so that we'll need to continue financing the Iraq war. With this budget, we stand to have a deficit of $477 billion. Your task here is to cut federal spending by that amount, so that we can balance the federal budget without raising taxes. Think you can do that?

The catch is this: you have to do this as if you were an elected official. I'll give you 100 popularity points to start with. If you lose all 100 popularity points, then at best, you won't get re-elected; at worst, you'll be so unpopular that you'll be recalled from office, and all your proposals will die a slow death in Congressional committee.

Before you spend too much time on this, I'll tell you: you won't be able to do it. But in a future article, I'll give you some ideas to give you a little breathing room.

Amounts shown are millions of dollars. (Source: White House Office of Management and Budget, summarized by Learn at Research Central). Your task is to cut $477,000 M in spending.

Total Federal Outlays $2,318,834 M
(on-budget) (1,938,855)
(off-budget) (379,979)

Social Security - $496,174 M
(on-budget) (14,299)
(off-budget) (481,875)
Social Security 496,174

This item is special, because Social Security accounting is usually done separately from the rest of the budget. Income for Social Security payments is taken from the FICA tax of the current workforce.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $0.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $40,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be accused of robbing the Social Security fund, and denying all current workers their proper retirement benefits. Lose 25 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Department of Defense - Military - $453,684 M
Military Personnel 117,362
Operation & Maintenance 165,719
Procurement 77,687
R&D 60,593
Construction 6,165
Family Housing 3,897
Other 3,364
Subtotal 434,777
Atomic energy defense act. 16,631
Defense related 2,276

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $150,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $200,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be accused being soft on defense and opening the door to terrorist activity. Lose 5 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Income security - $339,496 M
General retirement & disability 6,907
Federal employee retirement 89,295
Unemployment 48,287
Housing assistance 37,535
Food & nutritional assistance 46,614
Other income security 111,064

The first two items are retirement and disability programs to federal and railroad employees, and cannot be cut. The other items can be considered social programs: federal unemployment benefits, low-income housing, food stamps, school lunch subsidies, temporary assistance to needy families (welfare), and payouts for the earned income tax credit.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $60,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $200,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be portrayed as being responsible for putting millions of hungry children on the streets, and for increases in crime, homelessness, and urban decay. Lose 5 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Health - $243,501 M
Health care services 213,557
Health research and training 27,037
Consumer and occupational 2,907

This includes Medicaid, health care for low-income families.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $40,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $100,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be held responsible for disease and death for millions of low-income Americans. Your picture will be shown next to images of dying children. Lose 10 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Medicare - $270,451 M
Medicare 270,451

This is health care for retirees and people with disabilities.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $40,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $100,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be demonized for jeopardizing the health care of senior citizens. Your picture will be shown next to images of children grieving over their dead grandmothers. Lose 10 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Interest on debts - $156,264 M
Treasury securities (gross) 319,157
Int. received by on-budget trusts -67,388
Int. received by off budget trusts -86,286
Other interest -7,352
Other investment income -1,867

(on-budget) (242,550)
(off-budget) (-86,286)

Most of this is interest on the federal debt. The only way you can reduce this is by eliminating the budget deficit, which is your problem to begin with!

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $0.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $0.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: The federal government will default on its loans, and interest rates will careen skyward. Lose 100 points for any amount cut.

Education, training, employment, soc. Services - $87,211 M
Elem, secondary, voc education 37,554
Higher education 21,572
Research and gen ed aids 3,236
Training and employment 7,345
Other labor 1,610
Social services 15,894

This is federal funding for public schools, government scholarships and grants, and work training programs.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $30,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $80,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be accused of denying kids the chance at a good education, of being anti-family, and of jeopardizing the future of our country. Lose 20 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Transportation - $68,144 M
Ground 42,789
Air 18,598
Water 6,426
Other 331

This includes federal highway grants, Amtrak, and the FAA.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $15,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $60,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be blamed for making air travel less safe, and for allowing the highway infrastructure to decay. State legislatures will have to pick up the slack (probably by increasing state taxes). Lose 10 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Veterans benefits & services - $60,454 M
Income security 32,411
Education, training, rehab 2,621
Hospital & medical care 28,599
Housing -1,921
Other 714

This includes "welfare" for poor veterans, and VA hospitals.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $20,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $60,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be accused of abandoning veterans, and will lose support among the military and their families. Lose 10 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Justice - $41,603 M
Federal law enforcement 18,843
Federal litigative & judicial 9,365
Federal corrections 5,290
Criminal justice assistance 8,105

This includes the FBI, federal prisons, and the federal justice system in general.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $10,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $25,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be accused of being soft on homeland security and soft on crime. Lose 40 points for every $10,000 M cut.

International Affairs - $34,236 M
International Dev & Hum. Aid 17,890
International Security Assist. 9,545
Conduct of Foreign Affairs 7,953
Foreign information & Exch act. 1,009
International Financial programs -2,151

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $30,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $30,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will make America seem greedy and selfish, and will jeopardize foreign relations with the entire world. Lose 15 points for every $10,000 cut.

Nat. Resources & Environment - $31,665 M
Water resources 5,655
Conservation & land management 10,360
Recreational resources 2,982
Pollution control & abatement 8,299
Other nat. resources 4,369

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $20,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $30,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be portrayed as anti-environment, and national parks will suffer. Lose 20 points for every $10,000 cut.

General Government - $25,424 M
Legislative 3,459
Executive direction & management 578
Central Fiscal ops 9,940
General property and records 1,064
Central personnel 207
General purpose fiscal assist 7,693
Other 3,982
Deductions -1,519

This the cost of running the federal government itself, including Congress, the White House, and the IRS.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $5,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $10,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be accused of costing thousands of federal employees their jobs, and you will bring the federal government to its knees as it tries to cope with its workload. But some will hail you as a hero for reducing the size of government. Lose 5 points for every $10,000 M cut.

General science, space & technology - $22,291 M
General science and basic research 8,713
Space flight, research, support 13,579

NASA, and scientific research grants.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $20,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $20,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be accused of halting technological progress in the United States, and will be portrayed as backwards and anti-science. Lose 20 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Agriculture - $20,121 M
Farm income stabilization 15,741
Agricultural research and services 4,390

This is mostly federal subsidies for agriculture.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $20,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $20,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be held responsible for pushing thousands of farmers into bankruptcy. Lose 20 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Community & Reg. Development - $18,757 M
Community 6,914
Area and Regional 2,617
Disaster relief & insurance 9,226

Some pork projects, most likely, but also relief for hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fires, etc.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $10,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $10,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: If you cut disaster relief, you will be portrayed as heartless in the face of tragedy. If you try to cut the pet projects of Congressmen, your budget proposal will never make it out of committee. Lose 50 points for every $10,000 M cut.

Commerce & Housing credit - $7,723 M
Mortgage credit 2,213
Postal Service -4,896
Deposit insurance -1,451
Other commerce advancement 11,857

This includes federal mortgage programs.

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $5,000 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $5,000 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be held responsible for slowing down the economy by discouraging home ownership. If you raise postage rates to increase post office revenue, you will be held responsible for slowing down the economy by raising business expenses. Lose 5 points for every $1,000 M cut.

Energy - $957 M
Energy supply -363
Energy conservation 882
Emergency energy preparedness 176
Energy information, policy, regs. 262

Maintenance of strategic petroleum reserves, incentives for energy conservation. Is it really worth cutting this?

YOU ARE REASONABLY ALLOWED TO CUT: $0 M.
MAXIMUM YOU COULD POSSIBLY CUT: $0 M.
IMPACT IF YOU CUT THIS: You will be held responsible for energy shortages and higher gas prices. Lose 25 points for any amount cut.

Undistributed offsetting receipts - (-$59,321 M)
(on-budget) (-48,667)
(off-budget) (-10,654)
Employer share, empl. retire (on) -44,080
Employer share, empl. Retire (off) -10,654
Rents & royalties on Outer Cont Sh. -4,587

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Posted by Ken in: politics

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