Intro: The US Budget 100
A guide for citizens
Our federal budget is huge, roughly $5.8 trillion dollars. When I say our budget, I mean it, it’s ours. Yours and mine.
There are an overwhelming number of programs that make up that $5.8 trillion in spending. Do you need to be a PhD economist to understand the budget? No! For example, can you wrap you head around the fact that 60% of all federal spending is made up of Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and Defense? If you can remember that I think you already are more knowledgeable than the majority of Americans, including many in public office.
I’m going to try and explain the federal government spending and revenue in an easy-to-understand format. I will use the CBO’s estimates for 2022 for my numbers. When I say something like, Medicare costs us $941 billion, what I mean is the CBO is projecting Medicare to cost $941 billion in 2022. This projection came out in May of 2022, it should prove fairly accurate for the remainder of the year. Things do change, but despite what the news headlines would imply, the big picture in Americas finances hasn’t changed in many years, so while my numbers won’t be spot on accurate, for our conversation the numbers work well.
I won’t say things like government spending is good or bad. I want to put you in a position to intelligentially say if a policy makes sense or not.
While I can’t explain the entire federal budget in 140 characters or less, I will try to make this as understandable and concise as possible. I’ll start with taxes and other revenue sources, then spending. This first series will be filed with a 100+ number in the title.
In the 200 series, everything will be broken down a level deeper with added details. If you read all of the 100 and 200 level posts, you will know more about the federal budget than the majority of your friends and family. And you’ll discover it isn’t all that complicated.
If you want to really go deep, in 300 we’ll talk about the myriad other programs the federal government spends money on. 0.1% of the budget goes to NOAA, what the heck do we get for that? Why are we paying the department of energy to go to sporting events? Should the country have a space program? You can draw your own conclusions, but we’ll break down the numbers and I’ll try and explain the point of some of these programs.
400 will be the most opinionated. What tax laws do I think make very little sense. Where should the government cut spending? Where should the government increase spending? From 100-300 I’m going to work hard to give you facts about your government. When I give commentary, I’ll try to be objective and balanced. In 400 I’ll share what I think are very common-sense solutions to our deficit problem, but these will just be my opinions. Hopefully in the comments you can give some constructive feedback along the way.
The biggest compliment you can give me if you are enjoying the posts is to share this with your friends and family. The budget is not that complicated, I’ll boil it down to bite sized pieces, and by the end you will be among the most educated citizens in the country.
The budget posts will come out on Wednesday’s and on Friday’s I’ll share my regularly scheduled book reviews.
Hey Gang!
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Table of Contents:
Intro: The US Budget 100